Thought provoking questions and approaches to consider in your witness to others based on the Conversational Evangelism model training

by Dr. David Geisler (www.conversationalevangelism.com)

 

Starter questions: (getting a conversation started)

(Note: Ask questions based on common interests or hobbies)

What did you do on the weekend? (Hopefully they will ask you the same question)

I am curious…what do you do in your free time? What’s important to you?

Clarifying Questions:

What do you mean by_________?

How did you come to that conclusion?

Reflection Questions:

Now what I hear you saying is…

Tell me if I’ve heard you correctly. You are saying that…

Uncovering Question

If you could know the truth about religious issues, would you want to know it?

The reason why I ask this is because the truth may have implications that you may not personally like.

Moving from normal conversations to more spiritual conversations

 

Using the common ground of the moral law in building the first plank (Rom. 2:14)

 

1. Did you hear about…..? (In the news)

2. What do you think…do you think it was wrong of them to do that?

3. Would you agree with me that it seems a little inconsistent for us to tell our kids that morality is merely a personal preference and then “act surprised” when someone actually starts to believe it and we have events like the killing of children in Colorado and Connecticut?

4. How do you personally decide whether something is right or wrong?

5. Do you think people like Hitler and Bin Laden should get away with their crimes against humanity and not face any kind of judgment in the next life?

6. Do you think it matters what you believe?

7. If they say it doesn’t matter what someone believes…ask “do you think it mattered what those radical Muslims believed when they plowed into the world trade center”?

8. Do you think all religions basically teach the same thing?

9. Do you have any kind of religious preferences?

1. What conclusions have you come to about Jesus?

 

1. Do you know the difference between Christianity and all the other religions in the world? (Do versus Done)

2. Do you think that there are many ways to get to the better life in the next life or is there really only one way?

Using the common ground of the desire for meaning and purpose in life in building the first plank (Ecl. 3:11)

 

1. I’m curious what gives you the motivation to get up every morning other than (going to school) and/or getting a pay check?

2. Do you think it is possible that you and I were put here on this earth for some kind of purpose?

3. I’m curious is there anything in your life that helps you cope with difficult times?

4. Do you think that, if you really had a good family, a good job, and some kind of financial security, it would create the greatest possibility for happiness in life? Or would there still be something missing?

5. Do you think all religions basically teach the same thing?

6. Do you know the difference between Christianity and all the other religions in the world? (Do versus Done)

 

 

Questions that uncover where people are in their spiritual journey

 

1. Do you think it really matters what we believe?

2. Do you think it is possible that you and I were put here on this earth for some kind of purpose? If so, what do you think that was?

If you feel that you have been placed here for a purpose, do you see yourself as being on a spiritual journey?

If so, where do you think this journey is taking you?

 

 

Questions that surface doubt and uncertainty

 

I am curious to know ……………..?

How is it possible……………………?

Have you ever considered…?

Do you think it matters what you believe?

Do you think that all religious beliefs basically teach the same thing?

How is it possible for all religions to be the same when some of them contradict each other’s key beliefs?

Do you see how difficult it is to say you believe morality is just a personal preference and yet live your life that way? Why do you think this is so?

Do you think that all people will be held accountable for the way they live? If so, what’s that standard?

Do you think the Bible gives us a pretty reliable picture of what Jesus said and did? Were you aware of the fact that most biblical scholars agree on at least 95% of what is written in the New Testament? Don’t you think we can get a pretty good idea historically of what happened, if we have about 95% accuracy in the documentation?

(Keith Elliot and Ian Moir in Manuscripts and the Text of the New Testament: An Introduction for English Readers. (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1995), page 8 says “Most modern textual critics can agree on the bulk of the text (some 95 per cent of it, perhaps). It is the remaining 5 per cent or so where disputes occur and differing conclusions may be found.”

Do you think there is any reason that someone should form some kind of conclusion about Jesus?

“Have you come to any conclusions about who Jesus is?

Can you think of any natural way to explain the fact of the empty tomb and yet believe that Jesus was just a man, as many claimed?

How could Jesus be merely a man when he lived a sinless life, fulfilled prophecy, and gave evidence of being resurrected from the dead?

Why do you need Jesus to save you…if you can measure up?

 

If you do not believe there is life after this life is over, why is it difficult for us to avoid believing in non-material things like truth, love, beauty, goodness, etc.?

How is it possible for human life to be valuable and yet believe that life is just a random by-product of nature?

Are you telling me that there is absolutely no God? Because to know that, wouldn’t you have to search every corner of the universe to make sure there is no God. But, to know that wouldn’t you have to have absolute knowledge – which is one of the attributes of God?

So, in order to disprove God, wouldn’t one have to be God?”

If something exists (we exist), and something cannot come from nothing, then isn’t it not true that something must have always existed? Why? Because if there ever was a time where there was nothing, there would still be nothing.

Do you know why one of the world’s most famous atheistic philosophers of our day gave up his atheism before he died? Did you know it was because of all the evidence concerning Intelligent Design? (See Lee Strobel’s interview with Anthony Flew at http://www.leestrobel.com/videoserver/video.php?clip=strobelT2035)

 

Building Bridges questions:

 

Heart Bridges:

Do you know also because Jesus lived a sinless life, He set an example for us to follow? In a world that equates fundamental beliefs with hatred, it’s amazing to me that Jesus taught that we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matt. 5:44).

Do you know why it is important for Christians that Jesus actually conquered death?

Because now that Jesus conquered death, not only do we have a chance for reconciliation with our Creator (Rom. 5:1), but also because He rose from the dead, that same resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us to live transformed lives! We can now change and become what God wants us to be! (Rom. 8:11)

(How Jesus set an example for how we should live)

Have you ever considered the fact that when Jesus died on the cross he said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) What kind of person do you think Jesus would have to be to say something like this?

 

Head Bridges:

 

Now since you said that you really would like to know the truth about religious beliefs, wouldn’t checking out Christianity be a good place to start?

If not why not?

Did you know that all the other religions in the world (other than Christianity) are based on an ideology. Christianity is based on a historical event. If that event in history did not occur, Christianity would be proven to be false. (1 Cor. 15:14,19)

“Do you think there is anything different about Jesus compared to other religious leaders?”

“Do you believe that Jesus did miraculous things and in fact died on the cross and rose from the dead?”

“How do you fit Jesus into your religious beliefs?”

“If you were coming to the end of your life, and you met Jesus and other great religious leaders, and each suggested a different path, whose advice should you take.”

“Wouldn’t you take the advice of someone who’s been to the other side and come back to tell us about it?”

Now if you did determine that what was said in the bible about Jesus was true and that He really is the only way to God, would you follow Him?

“Now if Jesus Christ is the only person who has ever conquered death, shouldn’t we listen to what he has to say?

“If you were to discover that there was good evidence that Jesus was who he said he was, would that ever encourage you to know more about Him?”

Do you know there are four key facts that most Christians and non-Christians can agree on concerning Jesus that strongly suggests he was who he claimed to be?

Do you know what these four facts are?

The four facts are:

• that Jesus died by crucifixion;
• that he was buried in a tomb, but now his tomb is empty;
• that something happened to convince a large number of his disciples that he had been resurrected from the dead;
• that his disciples were willing to die for their belief that Jesus appeared to them;

“Would you agree with me that if Jesus did live a sinless life there is something extraordinary about him?”

“Would you also agree with me that if Jesus died on the cross willingly, then there is something supernatural about him? Why…because people may die for things they believe to be true but are false, but no one dies for things they know to be false. Yet if Jesus died on the cross, he died for something he knew was either true or false.”

Now don’t you think that if Jesus conquered death, then he must be our Creator or must have been given power from our Creator? For only our Creator has power over death! Now if Jesus Christ is the only person who has ever conquered death, shouldn’t we listen to what he has to say?

So if Jesus is the only religious leader who conquered death, don’t you think it is not that surprising that he also demands absolute loyalty? After all Jesus didn’t claim to be one of the ways to heaven, He claimed to be the only way (See Jn. 14:6; Acts 4:12; 1 Tim 2:5).

Transition to the gospel questions:

I realize it is possible to go to church all your life and hear a lot about God and Jesus but never really understand what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Has anyone ever explained this to you?

 

Can you think of anything that is keeping you from putting your faith and trust in Jesus right now?

“Now that you know that Jesus died on the cross for you because He loves you and desires to have a relationship with you, why do you still consider yourself a _______________?”

Q: Has anyone ever explained to you the difference between Christianity and all other religions? I can explain the difference between Christianity and other religions in two words:

Do versus Done

All the religions in the world say you have to do something to earn a better next life, except for Christianity. For example,

Muslims believe that salvation depends upon man measuring up and not on God’s grace. (Do)

Buddhism teaches that salvation comes about when one desires to stop desiring. (Do)

Hinduism teaches that if one does enough good he can pay off his karmic debt and escape the cycle of reincarnation. (Do)

Christianity on the other hand says there is nothing you can do…it has already been D.O.N.E. All you have to “do” technically is to passively invite Christ to come into your life, ask Him to forgive you of your sins, and ask Him to change you from the inside out (Jn. 1:12; Philippians 2:13).

Do you know why we Christians feel such an urgency to share with others about Jesus Christ? Let me give you an analogy to help explain this better?

“What if your best friend was trapped in a burning building and you know if you didn’t try to rescue your friend, they were going to burn to death. What kind of friend would you be if you just let them burn? Not a very good friend, right?

 

Do you see then why I am concerned about your spiritual future?

How do we illustrate what it means for Christ to die in our place?

Illustration: Cancer

“Let’s just say for the sake of the illustration that you have terminal cancer. What is most likely going to happen to you?” (Let him or her verbally say, “I am going to die”) Now, this is just an analogy, but suppose that Jesus could take your cancer cells and put it into his own body, what would happen to Jesus?” (Let them say “he would die”). And what would happen to you? (Let them say, “I would live”). Then say this is just an analogy to show what it means for Christ to die on our behalf and for our benefit.” (Rom. 5:8)

Our problem is no matter how much we do it still is not going to be good enough to get us into heaven. The bible teaches us that the standard is perfection and no one is perfect (Matt. 5:48; Js. 2:10).

Explaining the concept of sin (see chapter 8 page 140-141 of Conversational Evangelism book 2^nd edition)

 

Obstacles to the Cross:

 

No matter what concern or question they raise:

 

Ask them, if I were to answer this question or concern to your satisfaction, would you be more open to exploring Christianity and learning more about Jesus?

I believe that there are many ways to heaven other than Jesus

Your response:

How many ways are there to mend a broken relationship?

Isn’t there really only one way to mend a broken relationship? Don’t we have to say by our words or actions something to communicate to the other party that we are “sorry.” Now if that is the way it is in our human relationships, why wouldn’t that be any different in our relationship with God. God says to us that we have to reconcile to Him and say that we are sorry, but the only meaningful way we can do this is through Jesus Christ. It is the only way!

Dealing with the pluralist (someone who says all ways to God are equally good

I believe that all religions are true!

I would certainly agree that there are some things that all religions hold in common…but it is not in our similarities where we are distinct, it is in some of our key differences.

Do you know there are some major differences between Christianity and all the other religions in the world?

 

“Did you know that Buddha claimed to point to the way, Mohammed claimed to be a prophet of God, but Jesus Christ is the only major religious leader toever claim to be God, and then did three things to prove it? He fulfilled prophecy, lived a sinless life, and then died on the cross and rose from the dead?”

 

Answering them:

 

Did you know that a point in every direction is the same as no point at all?

 

Did you know that if you embrace everything…you stand for nothing?

 

So if there can be no one right answer, how can there be any hope in the world today?

 

Did you know that Jesus either is the only way to God or he is not the only way to God…but he cannot be both? (Jn. 14:6; Acts 4:12; I Tim. 2:5)

 

Underestimating the nature of Sin

 

It is difficult to explain how we tend to underestimate the nature of our offense against God and how our offense against God demands some kind of divine intervention. Collin Smith provides a good illustration to answer this objection. He says, “The biblical understanding of sin revolves around the idea of offending God, and it is this that makes it serious. We must make judgments about the seriousness of an offense in relationship to the thing or person offended. For example, if a man is digging in his yard and in the course of swinging his spade he injures a worm, he will probably not give the incident much further thought. If however, he swings his spade and accidentally injures a passing bird, he may have it on his mind as he goes to sleep that night. Suppose, however, that in swinging his spade he injures a dog. The man would feel an obligation to stop working and take the dog to the vet. But if in a wild swing of his spade, he injures a passing pedestrian, he may find himself in court. The measure of the seriousness of sin is that it is an offense against Almighty God.” (See Colin S. Smith, “Keeping Christ Central in Preaching,” in Telling the Truth: Evangelizing Postmoderns, edit. D.A. Carson (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2000), p. 119-120).

 

An analogy to better understand the concept of God’s Holiness and Man’s sin.

Furthermore we may not really understand the Holiness of God but by analogy we can get an idea that God’s standards may be higher than our own. For example, picture a young woman getting out of the car in her beautiful white wedding dress. Then imagine another car pulling up right next to her and a man with grease all over him getting out. As he gets out and passes by her, he smears grease all over her beautiful white wedding dress. Now, do you think that wedding dress is going to be acceptable to her? Of course not, because the dress has to be spotless! Now here is the point you want to make to your friends, “if you and I have a standard of what is right and wrong and we don’t measure up to it, can you imagine that God’s standard might be a little higher than our own?” (Matt. 5:48; Js. 2:10) So what you are doing is using a human illustration about something needing to be “spotless” and drawing the inference to the spiritual principle by suggesting that this may be how God views things as well. In this way you are attempting to build common ground in the least threatening way possible. So a question you might want to ask your friends in light of the things we clarified is, “Do you see how we have a tendency to underestimate God’s Holiness and overestimate our own righteousness?” Then ask them, “Is it possible that all our good works for God may not be good enough?”

Dealing with the barrier of apathy

I don’t care if Christianity is true, I don’t care if Hinduism is true, I don’t care if Islam is true…I just don’t care either way

How to respond:

 

Would you agree that if there is an afterlife, then there could be more meaning to life than what it may seem to be at times?

Wouldn’t you agree that the more serious the decision the more time we should spend to think about and determine what would be the right decision? For example, deciding what restaurant we should eat at on Saturday night may be important to you to some degree, but may not matter much or have any serious consequences either way. Yet deciding whom to marry could have greater consequences. As a result this decision is something we should ponder and think about for a while. It is certainly a much more important decision than deciding what restaurant to go to on a particular day. Now how about the decision as to what our life is going to be like after this life is over? Isn’t this even more important than who we marry? In fact couldn’t our decision not to decide about how to get ready for the afterlife involve even greater consequences?

 

Jim Elliot was a martyred missionary who said, “He is no fool to give up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

So if life now is just a drop in the bucket compared to eternity, wouldn’t this be worth checking out? Shouldn’t you care about what happens?

 

Dealing with the barrier of Relativism

 

Would you agree with me that just because people may disagree about whether a particular action is right or wrong, it doesn’t mean necessarily that there are no right or wrongs actions anywhere in the universe?

Would you agree that we might be able to all agree that there might be exceptions to basic moral principles of conduct, yet the exception would not rule out the need for a general principle or norm?

Even if I could only point to one moral principle or law that all cultures held to, would that not imply the need for a moral law giver?

Would you agree with me that if moral relativism is true, there is no basis for opposing racism, child abuse, bigotry, and etc.?

…Should governments not “impose” their morality on rapist, murderers, thieves, and child molesters?”

 

Dealing with the barrier of an eternal Hell

One of the doctrines we hold as Christians that seems so unfair to so many is our doctrine of an eternal Hell.

Response:

In answering objections about the belief in an eternal Hell, it can be helpful to first ask our friends the following question: “Can any of us honestly say that it would be better for God to have snuffed all of us out of existence than to remain alive for all eternity in Hell?” Another way to ask the same question would be to say, “Is it even possible to compare existence with non-existence and say that a bad kind of existence is worse than no existence at all?” Furthermore, we may not be able to understand fully why our sins cause a separation between us and God, but we can infer how this might actually be so.

For example, if you were drinking water from a cup, you probably would not be inclined to let me put a little sewage in your cup, no matter how small an amount. Even a small amount of something can cause big repercussions. In the similar way our sins that seem so little and insignificant to us can lead to some very negative repercussions from God’s point of view. Additionally, is it really unloving for God to send someone to Hell? Could it not actually be more loving to do so, especially if they have no desire to be in Heaven? For example ask them, “If Heaven is a place where people worship God, and you do not enjoy doing that now, what kind of God would force you to do that for all eternity? Not a very loving God, right? In fact would we not say in some sense for God to force someone to love and worship Him for all eternity would be a kind of Hell for them right?” Certainly one may not desire to be in Hell, but they may not want the alternative either!

You can also challenge the implications in their analogy that implies that our suffering in Hell would be inflicted externally. Ask them, “Is it not possible that the infliction in Hell may be caused from within?” Point out to them that there is nothing in Scripture that would prohibit this possibility. Philosopher Jean Paul Sartre made this exact point in his play called “No Exit” by pointing out that “Hell is other people.” We may find out some day that the doors to Hell may actually be locked on the inside. Furthermore the Bible teaches very clearly that Heaven and Hell are both eternal (Mathew 25:46) and there are good reasons to accept what the Bible teaches is true. Certainly one would agree that a biblical view of Hell presented in Scripture does not fit well with our post-modern ideas. But perhaps we are the ones who do not understand very well God’s perspective on sin and its consequences.

 

Questions for those with a church background

You mentioned that you went to church pretty regularly as a child. I’m curious did you ever come to a point in your life where your relationship with God became more important to you?

Do you think it is enough just to believe that Jesus died for our sins that will make us children of God?

Do you know the difference between “believing that” Jesus is the Messiah and “believing in” Him?

Outline for the defense of the Christian Faith:

1. Truth about reality is knowable.
2. The opposite of true is false.
3. It is true that the theistic God exists.
4. If God exists then miracles are possible.
5. Miracles can be used to confirm a message from God.
6. The New Testament is historically reliable.
7. The New Testament says Jesus claimed to be God.
8. Jesus’ claim to be God was miraculously confirmed by:
a. His fulfillment of many prophecies about Himself;
b. His sinless and miraculous life;
c. His prediction and accomplishment of His resurrection
9. Therefore, Jesus is God.
10. Whatever Jesus (who is God) teaches is true.
11. Jesus taught that the Bible is the Word of God.
12. Therefore, it is true that the Bible is the Word of God (and anything opposed to it is false).

To learn more about teaching the 12 points of classical apologetics see Dr. Norm Geisler’s book, 12 Points That Show Christianity Is True.