Reasons for the Objections

When considering a response to an objection raised by a non-Christian, it is essential to determine the reason for the objection. There are two primary reason for opposition to the Christian message. They are:

Knowing the reason for a non-believers objections will help the Christian to give an adequate response to their argument.

How to Respond to Objections

There are four things that you must do in responding to objections:

• Discover their Reason

• Discuss their Position

• Determine their Objection

• Dialogue about the Truth

You can ascertain these four things through a series of questions that you ask yourself and the non-believer. 

• Questions you ask yourself:

        To discover the reason you would ask yourself,
            Why do they believe this way?
        To discuss their position you would ask yourself,
            What exactly do they believe?
        To determine their objection you would ask yourself,
            Where is the error in their belief?
        To dialogue about the truth you would ask yourself,
            What Biblical truth needs to be communicated to them?

• Questions you would ask the non-believer:

        To discover the reason you would ask,
        What brought you to this conclusion, a lack of evidence or a personal
            experience or both?
        To discuss their position you would ask,
        Could you briefly summarize what you believe on this topic?
         To determine their objection you would say
        So you would say that you believe, (and then repeat back to them their
            opposing view).
        To dialogue about the truth you would ask,
        Would you say that in coming to this conclusion that there could be some
            information that you were unaware of or overlooked? Can I share with you
            some insight that I have discovered related to this issue?

When someone raises an objection while going through the 623 questions, you need to stop going through the questions and ask:

Response to an experience or both answer:

If they answer experience or both, then you would ask,

Can you share how the experience caused you to believe this way?

LISTEN to what they say as you listen ask the Holy Spirit to give you discernment on the direction to go. Then say,

Everyone's beliefs shape who they are and what they believe,
but have searched to see if there is an evidence to justify your feelings?

Response to an evidence answer:

LISTEN as they share the evidence of their beliefs, and make mental notes.
It might be helpful to restate what they have said to you, to insure that you are hearing them correctly. You could say:

So, you believe that ______ (and fill in what they have said)?

It is vital at this point that you do not try to tell them what you believe, or discredit what they are saying, but merely affirm that you understand what they believe.

When they have finished explaining what they believe then you can say:

Once you have determined their objection, then you can attempt to mentally place the objection in one of the categories of answers that you have learned.

Now that you have listened and you have affirmed their basic objection, you can attempt to answer them. You could ask:

Would you say that in coming to this conclusion that there could be some
information that you were unaware of or overlooked? Can I share with you
some insight that I have discovered related to this issue?

Then proceed to give the Biblical answer to the question. In your discussion never use the term "I believe". I doing this you are simply moving into a relativistic subjective argument,
rather than an objective discussion of the truth. Let the truth speak, not you opinion.

ANSWERS

To discover some suggested answers to key questions go to the Answers to Tough Questions section on the Beach Reach web page, or click here