Part Fifteen: More examples of questions that challenge skeptics who reject Jesus Christ and His resurrection.

This week’s blog article continues last week’s blog with additional examples of Socratic questions that challenge skeptics who reject Jesus’ deity and resurrection. It also responds to critics who question biblical salvation. The purpose of these questions is to stimulate conversations that lead to opportunities for Christians to share the biblical revelation (truth) about Jesus and His resurrection. The introduction to this issue can be read in last week’s blog article.

5. “The Gospel stories about Jesus are just religious myth!”

• “Since Jesus’ birth, life, crucifixion, and resurrection are recorded by eyewitnesses or their associates (the Gospels), why do you think they’re myth?”

• “How can legends or myths about Jesus develop when many people were still alive as the New Testament was being written–people who saw Jesus and could refute such claims?”

• “Why do you believe a documentary on television or in a magazine instead of Bible scholars who have demonstrated that the Gospels are true?”

• “Since the Bible has been proven to be a historically reliable document, why do you think the Gospel accounts are religious myths?”

6. “Jesus’ resurrection is fiction created by the early church. There is no evidence that He rose from the grave!”

• “If Jesus was certified dead by the Roman authorities, buried in a tomb with an official seal, but later seen alive by hundreds of eyewitnesses (and no one could produce His body), how can you say the resurrection is a myth?”

• “If the resurrection is a myth, give me a better explanation for the empty tomb; Jesus’ post resurrection appearances before hundreds of witnesses; the sudden and dramatic changed lives of disciples, who a few days earlier had fled in fear of their lives; the birth of the Christian church around AD 32; and Sunday (the day Jesus rose from the grave) becoming a day of worship for Jewish believers who had worshipped on Saturday for centuries? Doesn’t it seem much more plausible that the resurrection was an historical event rather than a fiction account concocted the early church?”

7. “I can’t accept a God who would send people to hell just because they never heard of Jesus. That’s unfair!”

• “Where did you hear that God sends people to hell who never had the opportunity to hear about Jesus? Where does the Bible say that?”

• “Before you reject God, shouldn’t you at least investigate why Jesus Christ is the only way that God chose to save people? Your eternal destiny is at stake!”

• “You don’t fall into the category of people who never heard of Jesus. Shouldn’t you be more concerned with your own salvation and leave it up to God to deal fairly with people who never heard of Him?”

• “If someone chooses to reject God, why should God take away their free choice and force them to go to heaven?”

• “God does not desire for anyone to go to hell. People choose hell by rejecting the revelation that God has provided them. Would you like to hear how you can have eternal life?”

8. “If people live good lives and are good persons, God will accept them into heaven!”

• “How good would you have to be? What are the criteria?”

• “Where did you learn that? Where did God say that in the Bible?”

• “How do you know that God saves people based on how good they are?”

• “What is there about your life that makes you so extraordinarily good that God will let you into heaven independent of Jesus Christ?”

In next week’s blog article, I will give examples of Socratic questions that challenge religious pluralism and moral relativism—the fundamental doctrines of postmodernism.

This series of blog articles is adapted from my book The Christian Combat Manual: Helps for Defending Your Faith; A Handbook for Practical Apologetics, which can be purchased through most outlets. The Combat Manual gives the Christian position on this issue and evidence to support it.