Truth Claims - 3 Questions
Practice Script
Section titled “Practice Script”How to Handle Truth Claims
Section titled “How to Handle Truth Claims”Have you ever been unable to respond to a non-believers truth claim, such as “I don’t believe the Bible because it’s been changed so many times”?
Our Ultimate Goal
Section titled “Our Ultimate Goal”We need to remember, the ultimate goal in having these conversations is so they may be inspired to get more information that would lead them to know Christ - with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Also, we want to be able to handle truth claims about our Christian faith because the Bible tells us to. 1 Peter 3:15 (ESV) says, always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
But, how do we have these conversations? For me, when someone would ask a question or make a claim about my Christian faith, I would freeze up and not say anything because I knew I didn’t have all the answers. And this was a problem for me because God has called me to study His word to help others and make Disciples. So, I knew I needed a process, and that’s when God lead me to our topic today. How to handle truth claims with 3 simple questions.
3 Questions
Section titled “3 Questions”The three questions are: What do you mean by that? - to clarify what they mean. How did you come to that conclusion? - to identify their evidence. Have you ever considered… (fill in the blank) - to share the truth as we know it.
The Rule
Section titled “The Rule”Before we review each question, let’s define the simple rule for truth claims. When someone makes a truth claim, it’s their job to support it, it’s not our job to correct it. Let’s begin with the first question.
Question 1
Section titled “Question 1”What do you mean by that? Let’s walk through our truth claim example, when people say “I don’t believe the Bible because it’s been changed so many times.” Their truth claim is the Bible’s been changed over time, so we would want to ask the first question based on their truth claim. For example,
“What do you mean by that? What in the Bible has been changed over time?”
We ask this to clarify what they mean. It could be they think we got the Bible from a 2000 year Telephone Game. Or, they could believe that the Scribes changed the meaning when copying the text over the years. Again, with this question we can clarify what they mean. Which leads us to the second question.
Question 2
Section titled “Question 2”How did you come to that conclusion? Which helps us identify their evidence, if they have any. In our example, I don’t believe the Bible because it’s been changed so many times, we could ask;
“How did you come to that conclusion? Have you investigated the manuscript evidence for the New Testament?”
By asking this question, and when people realize on their own that they can’t back up their claims with evidence, then perhaps they’ve taken the first step toward our ultimate goal for them; a desire to get more information. Which leads us to our final question.
Question 3
Section titled “Question 3”Have you ever considered… (fill in the blank) And this is where, by first learning what they mean and their evidence, now we are now better prepared to share the truth as we know it.
If they believe we got the Bible from a 2000 year telephone game, we could ask;
“Have you ever considered there are over 140 details in just the Book of Acts and the Gospel of John alone which have been verified to be correct? So the writers were either eyewitnesses or had access to eyewitnesses testimony.”
Or if they believe the Scribes changed the meaning, we could ask;
“Have you ever considered the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, particularly the Great Isaiah Scroll, which provides evidence that the scribes copied the scriptures accurately over 1,000 years?”
Summary
Section titled “Summary”So in review, we’ve covered how to handle truth claims with 3 simple questions. First, we covered the rule. When someone make a truth claim, it’s their job to support it, it’s not our job to correct it.
Then we covered the 3 questions. What do you mean by that… to clarify what they mean. How did you come to that conclusion… to identify their evidence. Have you ever considered… (fill in the blank) to share the truth as we know it.
The goal is that they may be inspired to get more information that could lead them to know Christ with the help of the Holy Spirit.
For more information on the process of having better conversations with people that make truth claims I would lead you to Frank Turek’s digital app Cross Examined (quick answers section) and Greg Koukl book Tactics.
Thanks for listening and I hope this helps you in your conversations with people that make truth claims about your Christian faith. God Bless.
Sources
Section titled “Sources”1 Greg Koukl, Tactics
2 Frank Turek, Cross Examined, Digital App
3 Norman Geisler and Frank Turek, I don’t have enough Faith to be an Atheist