We can learn from Jesus’ example how to answer trick questions that are objections to our beliefs. We need to know what our objector believes, recognize bad reasoning, and know how to defend our beliefs. This takes time, effort, and practice, but it is well worth it. People around us are watching how we respond, and we need to represent the truth well.

I hate trick questions. We’ve all had someone ask a seemingly innocent question only to realize they were making a point, not inquiring about what we think. “With all of the religions in the world, how can you believe Jesus is the only way to Heaven?” “Why would a loving God send people to Hell?” Sometimes questions like these aren’t real questions; they’re statements proving a point. So, how do we respond to these tricky questions? Jesus to the rescue.
In Matthew 22:24–28, the Sadducees ask Jesus a trick question:
Teacher, Moses said, “If a man dies having no children, his brother as next of kin shall marry his wife, and raise up children for his brother.” Now there were seven brothers with us; and the first married and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother; so also the second, and the third, down to the seventh. Last of all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had married her.
On the surface, this question seems to be about marriage in Heaven, but it isn’t. The Sadducees had some strange beliefs. Acts 23:8 says, “For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor an angel, nor a spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.” Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian, said the Sadducees taught that “souls die with the bodies.” The Sadducees weren’t asking Jesus a genuine question about the afterlife. They didn’t believe there is an afterlife or resurrection. So, what were they asking?
Their question is more of a statement than an actual question. They’re arguing for why there is no afterlife. According to Deuteronomy 25:5–10, if a man dies and leaves his wife a widow, it is the duty of the dead man’s brother to marry the widow and perpetuate his brother’s lineage. The Sadducees are pointing out that if this woman follows the law, as God commanded, then in the afterlife she will be a polygamist married to seven brothers. This obviously goes against God’s design for marriage, therefore there is no afterlife. Tricky. How did Jesus respond?
Read More
Related Posts:

The verses about God demonstrating his love through sending Jesus to be a sacrifice only make sense if Jesus is God. If Jesus isn’t God, like JWs claim, the verses would communicate that Jesus, a created being, has greater love for us than Jehovah does. However, if Jesus is God, the verses make perfect sense.

As I crested the bridge, there they sat. My hike was finished, but my opportunity to represent Christ was just beginning. At the end of the trail sat two Jehovah’s Witnesses ready to share their faith and give out more information about their church. Part of me wanted to pass them by and head home, but I decided to put a stone in their shoe, to give them something to think about.
A few years ago, I learned a line of argument to use with JWs. I call it “For the Love of Jehovah.” The point of this argument is to show that Jesus must be God based on what Scripture says about the love of Jehovah.
I approached my JW friends and asked them a series of four questions.
First, does Jehovah love human beings? “Of course he does,” they replied. We discussed how John 3:16 says that God so loved the world that he sent his only Son. I also mentioned to them 1 John 4:8–10, which says that God is love and his love was manifested through the sending of Jesus to be a propitiation for us.
After establishing Jehovah loves us, we moved on to my second question: What is the greatest demonstration of love according to the Bible? My JW friends paused for a second and then answered they didn’t know. I pointed out John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus claimed self-sacrifice was the greatest form of love. They nodded in agreement.
My third question was, how has Jehovah demonstrated he loves us? They responded by saying he sent his Son Jesus. I agreed, to an extent. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” This verse along with John 3:16 and 1 John 4:8-10 explain that God’s demonstration of love was in sending his Son. However, according to Scripture, this isn’t the greatest demonstration of love. Laying down your life, not sending someone else, is the greatest demonstration of love.
Read More

Related Posts:

Micah 5:2 meets all three of our requirements and so gives evidence that God was supernaturally involved in the writing of this prophecy. Fulfilled prophecy is evidence that God communicates and is involved in mankind’s history. Pointing out all that Jesus fulfilled can help us draw people’s attention to his message and ministry. Let’s begin to use fulfilled prophecy in our apologetic approach.

If you were God, how would you grab people’s attention? You’d have to do something out of the ordinary, something that would pique people’s interest—something miraculous.
The Bible is a record of God doing this very thing. But what about those of us who have never seen a miracle in our life? How does God get our attention? One way is by performing miracles using history, time, and written records. We call it prophecy.
Biblical prophecy is often overlooked as an apologetic for Christianity. We need to change this. One type of Old Testament prophecy predicts the coming of the Messiah. In fact, some have counted three hundred prophecies predicting when, where, and what the Messiah would be. If we can show these predictions came true, it would help us to build a case for the validity of Scripture, God, and Jesus.
There are three important criteria for using a messianic prophecy in apologetics.

Jesus didn’t fulfill the prophecy deliberately.
The prophecy predates its fulfillment.
The fulfillment of the prophecy can’t be a coincidence.

Once, Jesus appeared to fulfill a prophecy on purpose. Zechariah 9:9 predicted the Messiah would come into Jerusalem seated on a colt. The fulfillment is recorded in Matthew 21:1–11 and John 12:12–16. Jesus, knowing what Zechariah 9:9 had predicted, deliberately fulfilled this prophecy by asking for a colt for his triumphal entry. This kind of fulfilled prophecy would not be persuasive to a non-Christian.
Next, what evidence do we have that a prophecy was written prior to Jesus’ life? If there isn’t evidence the prediction predated the fulfillment, we can’t claim a specific event was foretold and fulfilled in Jesus.
Read More
Related Posts:

Pride Month can’t compete with Jesus. Jesus is not merely celebrated once a year on Christmas or even twice a year if we include Easter. Jesus is celebrated every Sunday—the Lord’s Day—as Christians worldwide worship Christ and commemorate his resurrection.

Scripture says that pride comes before a fall (Prov. 16:18). In America, pride comes before July—for an entire month. I don’t know how your June was, but mine was permeated with a steady stream of multi-colored imagery. It’s the time of year when companies, sports teams, and politicians change their branding to incorporate the new religious icon of our time, the rainbow.
I know this month-long celebration of sin can be discouraging for you. It discourages me. It’s sad to watch our culture glorify the rejection of God’s design for human sexuality and for human flourishing. On top of that, it’s so in your face. Even going to the grocery store requires maneuvering a minefield of rainbow propaganda.
Staying discouraged won’t help us. What we need instead is clear thinking from a biblical perspective to help us move away from discouragement and toward compassion. Here are three observations that might help.
First, Pride Month confirms Romans 1. Paul gives us a compact explanation of what happens when societies reject God. They become futile in their thinking, they become foolish in their hearts, and they exchange worship of God for worship of idols. Then God gives them over to homosexual sin (Rom. 1:21–27). Sound familiar?
Humans are worshipers. It’s a trait inherent in all of us. We cannot help but worship. But who or what will we worship? According to Romans 1, there are only two options: the Creator or the creation. When people reject the Creator, then something in his creation fills the void.
Sex is one of the most popular idols of all time. Our culture is obsessed with it. Pride Month is not merely the worship of sex, though. June has become a month-long celebration of sexual identities completely contrary to God’s design. All hail the idol of LGBTQIA2S+. Futile, foolish, idol worship—Romans 1 proven true again.
Read More
Related Posts:

Trusting in miracles to alleviate our suffering sets us up for disappointment with God when we’re not delivered. Instead, we pray, cast our cares on the Lord, and consider it all joy when we suffer because we know that through our hardships, our faith is refined and matured. When God does not give us a miracle, that doesn’t mean he let us down. When we embrace suffering for what it can produce in us, we mature, grow in steadfastness, and persevere well, which brings glory to God.

Can it be that seeking regular miracles in our lives isn’t what God intends for us?
First, be clear on this: I’m convinced God can and does perform miracles today. I think we should pray for healing for the sick and ask God to help us in dramatic ways. And sometimes he does. But should Christians expect to see miracles on a regular basis? I don’t think so, and I want to tell you why.
What is God’s purpose in doing miracles? Two things stand out in Scripture.
First, God used miracles to validate his messengers and his message. In the Bible, there are three prominent clusters of miracles that accompany God’s prominent messengers: Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. Their miracles got people to pay attention to their message.
Second, God used miracles as an act of mercy to meet deep human need. This was especially evident in Jesus’ ministry when he was moved with compassion to heal, but Moses and Elijah also worked miracles for this reason, too.
God cares about our concerns and sometimes intervenes miraculously to rescue us from our troubles. It’s why we’re told to pray for one another.
Though Jesus performed many miracles, however, he had something interesting to say about those who craved after signs and wonders:
An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matt. 12:39–40)
Jesus said his resurrection from the dead would be the chief miracle validating his ministry. The resurrection was Jesus’ greatest miracle because of what it accomplished. Jesus confirmed his message of salvation by rising from the dead.
Read More
Related Posts:

So what transformed James from a skeptic to a Christian saint? Two things—Jesus’ resurrection and the persuasive power of a sinless life. These two factors together compelled James to believe that Jesus, his brother, was God and convinced him to stake his life on that conviction (he died a martyr).

My brother isn’t God. It’s pretty obvious (we grew up together, after all), and nothing he could do or say could convince me of his divinity. I’m not God, either, and nothing I could do or say would convince him otherwise, too.
Yet somehow, Jesus convinced his brother he was God. And James was so confident, he was willing to die for his belief. How did Jesus do it? What convinced his own brother to acknowledge Jesus was God and worship him?
Early on, James had a different opinion. When it came to his brother’s bold claims, James was a skeptic. James, his brothers, and even his mother thought Jesus had “lost his senses” and showed up once when he was teaching “to take custody” of him (Mk. 3:21). Another time, Jesus’ brothers told him to go to Judea, where the Jews were seeking to kill him (Jn. 7:2–4) since “not even his brothers were believing in him” (Jn. 7:5).
“A prophet is not without honor,” Jesus said, “except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household” (Mk. 6:4). During Jesus’ public ministry, his brothers rejected his message, criticized him, and refused to follow him.
Later, after Jesus’ ascension, we see these same family members in the upper room praying continually with the disciples (Acts 1:14). What happened? What convinced Jesus’ brothers to believe he was Messiah, become one of his disciples, and devote their lives to him? What persuaded them their brother was God? What transformed James from a skeptic to a convert to the leader of the church in Jerusalem and author of a book of the Bible?
Two things made all the difference.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:7 that Jesus personally appeared to James alive after the crucifixion. Pretty impressive, but it raises a question.
Read More
Related Posts: