Dec 30, 2005

Jay Adkins asked a great question about Debating for God on his blog. It made me think quite a bit about the matter, and here are my thoughts.

I think it is impossible to share your faith with someone without a certain amount of “debate”. I think Jay hit the nail on the head by saying it should be done in a calm discussion. How else will the person know that you actually care?

I’d like to add a level to the question which I think will add some clarity – WHY would we debate with someone on this matter? I think many times we are tempted to do it for God’s honor or even worse, our own.

I think the true answer to the whole issue is found in our intentions.

I remember having a discussion with someone that I worked with – she was a pagan (literally). She knew I was a Christian and asked me about it over lunch one day. “How can you believe that I will go to hell for not agreeing with you?”

Ever wonder why people who don’t believe in hell are worried that we think they are going there?

Anyway, we had a civilized discussion and I shared my faith with her. She ended the conversation with, “Well, I guess we will just have to agree to disagree…”

I replied, “I guess so – I believe that you have the free will to do so… But I do care about you and my hesitation is this – If you’re right, I’m no worse off, but if I’m right, you’ve got some serious things to think about.”

She finally realized that I wasn’t in this conversation for myself, but rather for her. On the surface, she was as hard-headed as the atheists that Jay talks about, but my intentions broke past that.

I think that this type of calm, caring discussion increases the likelihood of the seed hitting fertile the ground rather than the stone. After all, “people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care…”

Thanks Jay for such a great topic…