If you’re a Christian who has attended a university for any length of time and have invested a high level of engagement with your unbelieving peers, you have most likely experienced the third degree. You know, that cascading barrage of questions that comes falling down on you: “How do you know God exists?” and “How can you say God is good when there is so much evil in the world?” After a while you may wonder about the motivations behind these questions, or simply collapse into a quiet, internal exasperation. With your beleaguered soul curled into a fetal position you pray for an extended endurance and an increase in wisdom. These learned types can be tricky to talk with. Their minds are full of all kinds of ideas that are not always friendly to your evangelistic advances.

The Scriptures tell us to be prepared to give an answer to those who ask questions about our hopefulness (1 Peter 3:15a). And obey the Scriptures we should. This is the task of apologetics—giving good reasons for our beliefs. We Christians are to proclaim and defend the gospel of Christ.

It’s quite interesting how often we recall ourselves answering all the imponderables of the universe—adequately or poorly. This is fine, and we should be accommodating as a matter of loving our neighbor. Yet if we play the defensive apologist only, we are limiting our apologetics. While proclamation and defense are a natural concomitant of Christian apologetics, let’s consider a third component to add: asking questions of our own.

It may strike one as ironic to say Christians should take a turn in playing devil’s advocate but that is exactly what we should do, in a manner of speaking. Atheists, like Christians, carry the burden of proof. If there is no God, then how does one account for the inherent dignity of a human being? Does the human race have some intrinsic value other than being a cog in a social machine sprung up from the work of time plus chance plus matter? If your peers reject the Christianity, then what do they believe?

This is reversing the apologetic method. We ask our non-Christian counterparts for their explanation for why things are the way they are (existence, ethics, love, spirituality, etc.). In fact we do our non-Christian peers a favor. When we unexpectedly ask them to account for life’s imponderables, we flush them out of the safety of their foxholes. They are moved to the vulnerable position of apologist and we amiably insist that they too answer the tough ones the best they know how. Not one living person can say they have no belief system. No one should be allowed to persist as the interrogator of another’s beliefs while never stating his or her own.

We may have to point out to our questioning peers that while they may not be Christian believers, they are believers. Even a skeptic has an ultimate frame of reference from which to scoff and criticize. The rationalist believes in the mind, the existentialist in courage and scorn, and the fraternity brother in his fraternity. By asking our own questions, it may become apparent to some that they have used the inquisitor’s chair as a defense mechanism to hide from the fact that they possess no answers of their own which satisfy them. Perhaps calling attention to the insufficiency and unsatisfactory nature of their current beliefs will intensify their thirst for living water and their hunger for food that is eternal.

Sample Questions

If you don’t believe in a personal God, how do you account for personhood in human beings? This is a question which can be very disturbing to people. What accounts for what we call personhood? What makes a human being valuable? Christians hold that all people, regardless, bear the image of God. Therefore no human person is ever “nothing,” for every individual is like God, just as we are. This image within us makes us all intrinsically valuable.

A friend of mine once posited his theory of the meaning of life. His stated conviction was that he believed that all people are motivated by power, and that all people really do in life is manipulate their environment to obtain power over others. I wrote a letter to him asking how his sister fit into his theory of power. My friend’s sister means the world to him, and they have one of the most beautiful relationships I’ve ever seen between siblings. Knowing this, I asked him if she were a mere variable to manipulate in his power theory. I have yet to hear back from him on this.

What do you believe to be the basis for human morality? We Christians believe that God is the source and basis for morality, and that is sufficient in our view. Our campuses are rife with a rash of relativism. On one hand the relativist says, “Everyone has a right to believe what they want, and what everyone believes is equally valuable, so don’t go telling people they’re wrong.” Christians have no qualm with the fact that people do have a right to believe what they want. But on the other hand, the relativist is the one who needs to be asked how he or she can justify using such absolute statements to profess relativism. Ask the relativist, “What causes do you stand for?” You may hear that they belong to Amnesty International, Green Peace, or a campus group representing pro-choice legislation. Ask them what their moral impetus is for belonging to a group or cause. If there is no real moral base, and if all truth systems are equally good, then who are we to oppose the Chinese government for their treatment of political prisoners? Is it because people are innately valuable? Ask, “Can we have any real morals without an absolute base?”

Have you ever read the Bible? Repeatedly Christians are told with a gob of incredulity that it’s inconceivable that anyone can trust a book with so many errors in it. An excellent question to ask in response is, “What errors do you have in mind?” The point is not to snub another person, but most likely they have never made a serious attempt to read the Bible for themselves. The accusation that errors abound in Scripture come from second-hand rumors built on rumors and so on. While the general theme of salvation is clear throughout the Bible, there are tricky passages. Don’t pretend that the Bible is as easy as pie, but don’t let your peer off the hook. In doing this we are demonstrating that we are tough-minded, and the misconception that all Christians are uneducated anti-intellectuals will become passé as far as your unbelieving peers are concerned.

One must be creative in this methodology of reversing apologetic tactics. Every person you meet will have different questions that concern him or her in unique ways. You will meet atheists, Hindu’s, agnostics and materialists. You will come face to face with future philosophers, engineers and journalists. You will cross cultures with Africans, Asians and Europeans. And your heart will mingle in dialog with folk who have experienced abject poverty and others who were born with the proverbial silver spoon of privilege. This complexity requires sensitive vigilance born out of sincere compassion for people and will birth a host of questions as diverse as the people you meet.

Reviewing the apologetic triad

In the opening we established that disciplemaking entails three elements: (1) proclamation, (2) apologetics, and (3) asking questions of our own.

In the first place, we are preachers and teachers. Our task is partially didactic and declarative. This naturally leads us into apologetics as our claims about Christ raise eyebrows, just as Paul did at the Areopagus. We will be asked about this strange belief. We must be prepared to answer.

Finally, we add our questions. We ask our peers to account for their beliefs. This takes away the strictly defensive role that Christians usually find themselves in and pushes the non-believer to be a better thinking person, just as their questions often stretch our minds. This final element of the triad can also enhance the quality of relationship with a non-believer, because it removes the Christian from the seat of sagedom and conveys a genuine interest in what the other person believes. Asking about the person also shows that you don’t pretend to know it all. You can show respect for their intelligence and their dignity while also showing a humility consistent with Scripture: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding,” not its completion.

Scott Spradlin is a therapist with the Portland Dialectical Behavior Therapy Program in Portland, OR. He is also a crisis counselor. He lives with his wife, Jill, and their 21-year-old calico cat, Pokadot. Scott runs a Web forum called Photosphere. Check it out at www.delphi.com/photo­sphere. You can e-mail him at s_e_spradlin{AT}yahoo{DOT}com.