Tweets For The Streets
Lots of people go out on the streets at this time of year, to talk to people about Jesus, the gospel and the meaning of Christmas. When those conversations happen, we often encounter questions or comments which sound simple – ‘Who made God?’ or ‘Why does God allow suffering?’ or ‘Science has disproved God’ – but to which simple, pithy answers may not come easily. Lengthy analytical responses, or book recommendations, or even blog-length answers, are not what you need at times like that. You sometimes need a quick, simple response, whether in the form of a question or a statement, which summarises your position and helps the conversation move on. My friend Simon Holley was talking to me about this recently, and he said it would be really useful to have a list of tweet-length answers to common questions like this. Tweets for the streets, if you will.
So here’s twelve to get you started (the first is from J John), and I’d ask readers to log in and add their own suggestions, both of questions and responses, in the comments below. The only rule is: no more than 140 characters are allowed!
“Have you seen God?”
I would have seen God, if I’d lived at the right time. Have you seen Queen Victoria?
“Who made God?”
God, by definition, is eternal. So asking “how did God get made?” is like saying “how do squares become circles?”
“Religion causes wars.”
I think people cause wars - for religion, land, food, empire, etc. But Christianity is about a man who sacrificed himself for his enemies.
“All religions lead to God.”
How do you know? Some religions sacrifice children to the gods; others (like Christianity) find it appalling. They can’t all be right!
“Why does God allow suffering?”
God hates suffering. All suffering comes from either sin or death - and the good news is that in Jesus, God has, and will, overcome both.
“You can’t prove God.”
Scientifically, no (but then I can’t scientifically prove that I love my wife, either). But we can conclude he is likely, based on evidence.
“There’s no evidence for God.”
Actually, there’s lots - but for starters, have you ever looked into the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus?
“Science has disproved God.”
That’s like saying that the discovery of hormones has disproved the existence of love. Science is the how and when; God is the who and why.
“Miracles are impossible.”
Says who? The most we can say is that they don’t normally happen - but then we all know that. If God is possible, miracles are too.
“Evolution has disproved God.”
Really? Most of the world’s leading evolutionists don’t think so, and lots of Christians believe in evolution. Why is that a problem?
“God sending people to hell is unloving and unfair.”
Hell means: if you want to be without God, forever, then that’s exactly what you get. What could be fairer than that?
“Why doesn’t God heal amputees?”
So: if I could find you someone who didn’t have a body part, was prayed for, and was instantly healed, would you follow Jesus?
This is a very 20-30something, white, British list (since Simon and I are both 30something, white, British men!) But since we have 500 pageviews every day here, and we’re followed in 94 different countries, there should be plenty of examples of good questions, and good responses, amongst our readers! Please share your best ones…
Comments
By Chine Mbubaegbu on 07/12/2011 at 11:44
This is a great idea!
By Graham Clark on 07/12/2011 at 13:26
A few more questions to throw into the mix.
Why can i trust the bible?
Do babies go to heaven?
What about people who never hear about God?
Isn’t Religion just a crux for the emotionally weak?
By Dan Rodger on 07/12/2011 at 20:19
Great article, just posted it in my apologetics group!
A few of my attempts below:
“Who made God?”
Only what begins to exist needs a cause, because God is eternal and has always existed asking who made him makes no sense.
“Science has disproved God.”
The scientific method is agnostic on Gods existence as it deals with material entities, God is immaterial and outside the realms of science.
Great idea to get people to be both concise and persuasive.
By Liam Thatcher on 08/12/2011 at 10:22
This is brilliant… really helpful!
By Paul Hill on 08/12/2011 at 13:42
All helpful thank you,when talking on the streets i always remember if i can convince someone God is real and answer all there questions someone else can convince them the opposite,being lead by His Spirit and Listening to His Voice is the Key!!
By Dan Rodger on 08/12/2011 at 17:57
Paul Hill - Only if you assume that the evidence isn’t very good or persuasive, arguing that answering peoples questions is essentially pointless is itself an argument, which is kinda self-refuting.
Surely the key is both listening to God and being lead by him but also realising our responsibility to answer peoples reasonable questions circa 1 Peter 3:15 etc. Paul and Peter throughout Acts are both great examples of both being lead by God and practising God honouring apologetics that lead to the Gospel [Acts 17…].
Th way Alpha works is a great example of the use of Apologetics and using our minds, you answer the why questions before you get to the what I.E. the Gospel.
By Steve Vaughan on 08/12/2011 at 20:38
This is really useful and also lots of fun, I will come back to this blog when I train my INTRO table leaders (like alpha).
What is interesting is Tim Chester on exactly the same day posted something very similar - spooky - and it is all part of his training programme called Porterbrook. Check out
http://timchester.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/apologetic-sound-bites-why-doesnt-god-reveal-himself-more-clearly/
He is thinking ‘how do you do apologetics in a noisy pub or during at tea break at work’
And he is going to do a mini-series as well - might be worth comparing notes
STEVE
By Paul Hill on 10/12/2011 at 03:20
Dan Rodger-Agree with you100Percent
By Michael on 10/12/2011 at 16:59
Thanks for this great blog / post. One statement made by many black people (or even people of other races), is that Christianity is a “white man’s religion” used to enslave and colonise blacks throughout history. I suppose you could argue that this is a variation on the “religion causes wars” argument made by some.
I have my own views on this but how should Christians respond to this statement / assertion (in a “bitesized” format) as discussed above?
Thanks.
By nathandavidlambert@gmail.com on 16/12/2011 at 09:36
This is just awesome. Love the concept ! With a group of friends in France we’ve started to gather votes on the thirty most common objection to the faith in our context, and we’re going to try and come up with the best possible “tweets” to respond to those questions. Will translate and post the answers when we’re done (don’t expect anything for another 4/5 months or so : we’re trying to make it as comprehensive as poss)..
By Peter on 05/01/2012 at 18:35
Michael, one thing’s for sure and that is that the first Christians were not white. Presumably the Ethiopian eunuch was black. An American asked a Nigerian if he wasn’t angry with white people for colonising his country. No, he said, he was thankful that they brought the most important thing of all, the gospel.
Arabs were enslaving Africans long before we got there.
By Simeon Dry on 27/01/2012 at 16:56
Thanks @Andrew. We featured some of these on the rolling powerpoint before and after out carol services last month.