Answering With Questions

Have you ever noticed how often Jesus answered His skeptics and critics with a question? For example, in Luke 10 a lawyer asked Jesus how to inherit eternal life? Jesus answered with a question, "What does the law say?" Why did Jesus often do this? For one thing, it is a very Jewish thing to do culturally to answer a question with a question and Jesus was a Jew. But secondly, it is a wonderful way to respond to critics and skeptics. Often, we tend to just try to convince them of our point of view through our own intellectual arguments. But how often does that work? Not very often I'm afraid. But if we would instead respond to their statements with a question or two, we might make some progress.

I was actually given this piece of advice when I was young in ministry and getting ready to go before a licensing examination board made up of ordained pastors to be examined for my own ordination. A pastor gave me this piece of advice before I went in for my Inquisition, I mean examination. He said, "If they ask you a question that you either are unsure of the answer or you would rather not give your answer to, simply answer their question with a question." I said, "What good will that do?" This pastor simply said, "Trust me!"

So I went into this oral examination and at one point one of them asked me my view on social drinking. I wasn't sure I wanted to give them my answer on this topic so I decided to try out this piece of pastoral advice I had received. I replied, "What do you mean by social drinking?" I kid you not when I say that for the next 45 minutes these men debated among themselves the definition of social drinking and I never had to answer the question. So if responding with a question can work on a bunch of ordained pastors, why not try it out on some skeptics and critics as well.

So the next time you run up against a skeptic or a critic of the faith who makes an assertion you know to be incorrect and unbiblical, instead of just cramming your point of view down their throat, which usually accomplishes very little, try responding with these four questions:

What do you mean by that?

Where did you get your information?

How do you know you are right?

What if you are wrong?