• Did a survey on the internet of all the possible objections and misunderstandings about Christianity.
  • 7 last time
  • Another 7 now
  • Go through list briefly

1. The Christian life is dull/boring & God hates pleasure

• Actually the opposite is true
  • If you look at the directions for living God gave to Ancient Israel, it was full of feasting and enjoyment of God’s creation
  • Although the Bible is strongly against drunkenness, Israel was the only culture we know of where watering down wine was frowned on Is 1:21-22
• So how did Christianity get that reputation?
  1. An unfortunated influx of some ideas originally from a philopher called Plato
     • led to a whole stream of Christianity called asceticism
     • Living up poles (Stylites), rough clothing...
  2. The idea of “doing penance for sin”
     • actually the opposite is true—once we know our sins are forgiven, we it is a subject of happiness
     • Jesus told three stories to illustrate this: lost sheep, lost coin and lost son

1. The Christian life is dull/boring cont’d

3. A limited definition of pleasure
   • Material posessions and sex
   • But Jesus gives his followers a gift of supernatural life within them
   • This gives a joy and satisfaction that is invisible
   • So it can look from the outside like there is no fun

• Suppose someone from the 19th century were to examine our homes
  • no horse and buggy, so we never go anywhere
  • no fireplace so the home must be freezing in the winter
  • no gas light, must be dingy and dark
  • no games or music, just funny boxes with wires that come out of them
    • conclusion: they have no fun and life is cold and miserable
• So three reasons (summarize)

2. If there’s a God of love, how come there’s so much suffering in the world?

• A big question

1. A large proportion of the suffering is due to
   • war and oppression
   • poverty
   • exploitation

• Humans can treat each other with a vicious cruelty that you don’t even see in the animal kingdom
  • Few people will deny that there is such a thing as evil
  • recently there have been killings in the Middle-East and Africa on the scale of genocide
    • you can’t just put that down to a few people with bad upbringing or sick minds

2. Some suffering is due to natural disasters or sickness
   • This world is broken—it is not how it ought to be

• The real question is does God care?
  • Yes, he has an ultimate plan to get rid of evil forever
  • What we see around us is part of the process
    • The world is in rebellion—it is actually us who have done this
  • God is going to re-make the entire universe without pain or suffering
• That ultimately leaves just one question:
  • Why the delay?
  • I can’t answer that definitively, but part of the answer I believe is that God has to allow evil to fully reveal itself so that he can utterly abolish it
    • Story of the wheat and the poisonous weeds
• Reminder: I would turn the tables and say:
  • the atheist does not have a better answer, and has no explanation for evil

3. The Bible is a lot of old myths with no archeological support or scientific basis

• Actually this could not be further from the truth
  • For examply, 100 years ago people mocked the Bible for talking about an empire called the Hittites
    • Not a single piece of evidence for them had ever been found
  • Now you can go to the British Museum and visit the “Hittite Room”
    • see with your own eyes the wealth of what has now been discovered
• This story can be repeated time and time again
  • E.g. Jericho
• Scholars who study ancient writings can easily spot frauds
  • e.g. words are used that were not in use then.
    • (e.g. I could make up a book supposedly 400 years old (King James English) and use the word “conversation”)
    • Invasions bring in new words (e.g. 1066)
  • The book of Mormon, supposed to be ancient, talks about sailors using a compass (in O.T. times). Actually not used till 1100 AD in China
• Not a single “out of place” reference in the Bible

4. The Bible is full of contradictions

• This is a sermon in and of itself
  • I teach a course on understanding the Bible
  • We spend a day looking at apparent contradictions
  • Not a single one that holds up
• Most of them are very easily dismissed
  • I’ve not met a single one that doesn’t have an answer
  • like “the sun rose” (but now we know that the earth goes round the sun)
    • Times of sunrise and sunset are in the paper today
  • Ordinary language—we describe what we see
    • How far from here to where you live? 5km
• If there was a serious, unanswerable contracdiction, do you think it would have been found in 2000 years
  • Just one would be enough to stop any intelligent person believing the Bible is God’s Word

5. There’s no proof for God like there is for scientific facts

• How well does a theory explain the facts?
  • e.g. all the planets are made of vegetables—does not explain anything
  • The universe is one big accident with no purpose
  • There is no difference between killing a person and killing a fly
  • love has no meaning, nor art or beauty
  • Everything that ever exists is an inevitable outcome of a big bang
    • Every thought you have was contained in that original explosion
  • No such thing as injustice
• How well does that fit the facts
  • Universal knowledge of right and wrong
  • Universal belief in God
  • Universal sense of Justice
  • Love and compassion
• How well does your theory explain the really important things in life?
  • Is it worth defending the weak?

6. Christianity hasn’t done anything particularly good for the world—most wars are caused by religion

• Most wars are caused by religion
  • and so the last thing we need is people who believe strongly that they are right
  • “Most diseases are caused by bacteria, so the last thing we need is a load of doctors who who believe strongly that they are right”
• Most wars are actually caused by greed and desire for power
  • most “religious wars” are actually tribal
• In fact, Christians have been some of the greatest benefit to the earth
  • Abolish slave trade
  • Work among orphans
  • Work in the inner city (e.g. Salvation Army)
• Factory in China

7. Christians actually have the nerve to believe theirs is the only true faith!

• Christians are more intolerant of other people than non-Christians.
• Christians despise Mormons, JW’s, and other cult members.
  • This all depends on whether Jesus really does have the answer?
• Imagine a terrible disease breaks out among the flood refugees in Pakistan
  • You have the cure, that is simple, easy to administer and rapid
  • What if you are accused of being arrogant
    • What would your response be? —Yes we are both just as valid...
• so what is Jesus’s answer?

• Rather than getting entangled in side issues, he identifies her deep problems
  • She has a deep inner need:

• You won’t need a microscope because you will have evidence in your life
• Ultimated the answer is to “taste and see that the Lord is good”
• Ultimately the answers are found in a person: Jesus Christ