As Christians, what we believe to be true puts us against the vast majority of the world. Everyone believes something about truth, yet few have the God of the universe as their source of discovering it. That’s why we need to be ready to answer questions not only about sin and salvation but about everything related to our faith. After all, if it’s true then we should know why it’s true.
Natasha Craine has compiled a list of 65 broad questions that hit on various topics, and each of them is worth our time to consider (link). Although she’s telling parents that these are questions their kids will likely ask, the reality is that all of us will run across many of these questions throughout our lives, if not with our peers then in our own minds.
Whether it’s about the origins of the universe, miracles, or why God seems to condone slavery in the Old Testament, each question is worth our time to consider. And so we shall.
Over time, I’d like to make this list a reference of sorts as we dig into each question on this blog. This list will be updated with links to articles that dig deeper into a particular question. My goal is for this to be useful for Christians who are asked questions they haven’t considered or simply have their own questions and aren’t sure where to start.
Here’s a long, though not exhaustive, list of questions we may need to answer. I’ll include my own answers over time, but it’s important for readers to make sure they not only know what they believe about these questions, but most importantly why they believe it.
Questions About the Existence and Nature of God
1. What key arguments are there for (and against) God’s existence?
Common arguments for His existence include the Moral Argument, Teleological Argument, Cosmological Argument, and Ontological Argument.
Common arguments against His existence include the lack of evidence, Occam’s Razor, the existence of evil, the question “who created God?”, and the paradoxical nature of His existence.
I explain these arguments in detail here: Arguments For (And Against) God’s Existence
2. What are the practical implications of an atheistic worldview?
3. Why would a good God allow evil to exist?
4. Why would a good God allow suffering to exist?
5. Why would God command the death of so many people in the Bible (e.g., the Canaanites)?
6. How can a loving God send people to hell?
7. Why does God remain so “hidden?”
8. Why does the “Old Testament God” seem different than the “New Testament God?”
9. Why would God need people to worship Him (isn’t that egotistical and arrogant)?
Questions About Truth and Worldviews
10. What is the difference between absolute and relative truth?
11. How can it be reasonable for Christians to claim knowledge of an objective truth?
12. What is the role and danger of using “common sense” in evaluating truth claims?
13. Isn’t hell an unreasonable punishment for not believing in a specific set of truth claims?
14. How can Christians think their personal religious experiences with God are any more “true” than those of adherents to other belief systems?
15. Do all religions ultimately point to the same God? Why or why not?
16. What are key similarities and differences between the world’s major religions (e.g., Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism)?
17. Is Christianity a less intelligent worldview than atheism? Why or why not?
Questions About Jesus
18. What extra-biblical evidence is there that Jesus existed (as a historical person)?
19. What major Old Testament prophecies did Jesus fulfill?
20. Was Jesus wrong about the timing of his second coming? Why or why not?
21. What are the key passages in the Bible that show Jesus claimed to be God?
22. What does the Bible say about the exclusivity of Jesus with regard to salvation?
23. Why did Jesus have to die on the cross for our sins to be forgiven (couldn’t God have just pardoned sins without a gruesome death involved)?
24. What are the four minimal facts of the resurrection that are “so strongly attested historically that they are granted by nearly every scholar who studies the subject, even the rather skeptical ones?”
25. What are the main theories non-believers have about the resurrection (e.g., unknown tomb, wrong tomb, disciples stole the body, authorities hid the body, etc.)?
26. Why do Christians believe a supernatural (bodily) resurrection explains the minimal facts better than all the other theories?
27. Why does it matter whether or not Jesus was resurrected (and that the resurrection wasn’t simply a metaphor)?
Questions About the Bible
28. Who selected what books are in the Bible?
My two-part series answers questions 28-30:
How Did We Get The 66 Books Of The Bible? Why Do Some Bibles Have More Books? (Part 1)
How Did We Get The 66 Books Of The Bible? Why Do Some Bibles Have More Books? (Part 2)
29. How were the books of the Bible selected?
See #28
30. Why were some “books” we know about today (e.g., the Gospel of Thomas) left out of the Bible?
See #28
31. How can we know that the Bible we have today is a reliable record of the original writings?
32. What major “contradictions” exist in the Bible (and what are the explanations)?
33. Does the Bible support slavery? Why or why not?
34. Does the Bible support rape? Why or why not?
35. Does the Bible support human sacrifice? Why or why not?
36. What does the Bible say about homosexuality?
37. How do Christians determine what parts of the Bible are prescriptive and which are descriptive?
Science and Christianity
Young Earth Creationism
38. What is Young Earth Creationism (YEC)?
The belief that Genesis is a completely historical account, meaning that God created the world as recently as 6,000 years old. Read more here: What Is Young Earth Creationism?
See the article in #38.
40. How do YECs determine that the earth is 6,000-10,000 years old?
Evidence for an Old Earth (i.e., billions of years old)
41. What areas of science have implications for the age of the earth?
42. What are major methods scientists use to estimate the age of the earth, and what is their consensus on the estimate?
43. What is the relationship between belief in a global flood and the age of the earth?
Old Earth Creationism
44. What is “Old Earth Creationism (OEC)?”
45. What are the major reasons OECs reject the YEC interpretation of creation?
46. What are the key pieces of scriptural support for the OEC interpretation?
Intelligent Design
47. What is Intelligent Design?
48. Why do Intelligent Design proponents consider it a scientific theory and not a religious one?
49. What are the major reasons Intelligent Design proponents reject evolution as a sufficient explanation for the existence of life?
50. What does it mean that the universe appears to be “finely tuned?”
Evolution
51. What is evolution (from a purely scientific perspective)?
52. What are the key pieces of evidence for evolution?
53. What are the key questions evolution has not answered?
54. What do people mean when they talk about “macroevolution” versus “microevolution”?
55. Why do evolutionists reject the theory of intelligent design?
56. What are the theological implications for an acceptance of evolution?
57. What are the theological implications specifically for Adam and Eve not being literal, historical people?
Other Science and Christianity Questions
58. Why would Jesus-loving, Bible-believing Christians differ on their view of origins?
Other Important (and Common) Questions
60. What does it mean (biblically) to have faith, and how is that different than the popular definition of faith? (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5)
62. Why are there so many denominations (and does the fact of many denominations invalidate the truth of Christianity)? (My lengthy discussion on Catholicism and church history digs into this question. Check out Part 1 here)
63. Is Christianity “responsible” for millions of deaths throughout history? Why or why not, and what implications does the answer have for the evaluation of Christian truth claims?
64. What happens to people who have never heard the Gospel?
65. Why don’t miracles happen as frequently today as they did in the Bible?
