How to handle truth claims with 3 simple questions.

1 Peter 3:15 says - but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.

But, how do we do this? For me, when someone would make a true claim about God or the Bible, I would freeze up and not say anything because I knew I didn't have all the answers. Therefore, I didn't have the confidence to share anything. So, I knew if I was going to be able to help others learn the truth, I needed a process to have an intelligent conversation even if I didn't have all the answers - and that's how I found our topic today. How to handle truth claims with 3 simple questions. 

First we have the rule. When someone make a truth claim, it's their job to support it, it's not our job to correct it.

So, how do we handle truth claims with 3 simple questions? The first two questions are to clarify meaning and identify evidence. Once we understand their meaning and evidence, we've earned the right to share the truth as we know it. The goal - they may be inspired to get more information. 

The 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.

Let's walk through a 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 ask the first question.

What do you mean by that? What in the Bible has been "changed"?

Again, 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. Neither is true and with this question we can clarify what they mean. Which leads us to the second question.

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 reconsidering their beliefs.

Which leads us to our final question, Have you ever considered... And this is where we've now earned the right to share the truth as we know it. In our example, I don't believe the Bible because it's been changed so many times, 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 you 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?

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 - 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.