Zig Ziggler once said,
“You can never make a person change
his mind.
You can only help him make a new decision with new information.”
Please remember that the people who are questioning your
faith, or even attacking it have an agenda.
- They honestly have some confusion about Christianity.
- They want to humiliate you.
- They want to make you lose your faith.
- They’ve had a bad experience with people who profess Christianity but do not model their lives after Jesus’ love.
- They feel threatened by your faith.
- They are afraid. Let’s face it, if you are right, then they are in big trouble.
So how should you respond?
First, foremost, and always, keep Jesus in mind. Your job is not to alienate people, but to
encourage them with love and truth.
Keep in mind that no matter how ugly they may become, do not
lose your temper. I’ve found the more
angry and insulting people are, the more fear they have.
Don’t strike out in anger or with insults, but instead
give
them new information to help them make a new decision.
You need to know your scripture well. If you
don’t have a good, strong, plausible answer, then check some of the apologetics
links I’ve provided to help you formulate an answer.
This is how God would have you deal with someone who is
attacking you or your faith.
Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking guile.[1] And so let every man be swift to hear, slow
to speak, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man does not work the righteousness
of God. [2] He
that is slow to anger [3] or
wrath is of great understanding [4]
and knows that a soft answer turns away wrath: grievous words only stir up
anger.[5]
If you loose your cool, you fall into their trap. Instead of helping bring someone to faith,
you can actually drive them away, condemning yourself to being a hypocrite.
Remember, your opponent’s agenda is usually to discredit
Christianity.
[1] Psalms 34:13
[2] James
1:19-20
[3] Proverbs
16:3
[4] Proverbs
14:29
[5] Proverbs
15:1
[6] Proverbs
14:17
[7] Proverbs
21:23
