Simple Church Minute 67--What if someone asks you a question that you don't know the answer to?

67—What if someone asks you a question that you don’t know the answer to?

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute

            Let us say you are witnessing to a person who asks you a question you do not know the answer to.  What should you say?  This is a matter of heart, not knowledge, both yours and the other person’s.  First, there are questions of the trivial variety, like “Can God create a stone He cannot lift?”  Philosophers through the ages, and in mathematics, Godel’s Incompleteness Theorem address this, but this isn’t a serious question for someone seeking truth, it’s a parlor game.  That God is in the sentence is irrelevant; it has to do with the use of positive and negative terms in a certain alignment.

            Now, for relevant questions.  First, this has to do with obedience to Jesus.  If you don’t know the answer, say, “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.”  Now, you’ve made a promise, so find someone who knows, find out the answer, and get back to that person.  I have to say, this may not be as easy as it looks.  For the person seeking truth, honest questions deserve honest answers.  Even some leaders in the church prefer deflecting difficult questions with humor over helping persons find honest answers.  That person may have titles and degrees, but lack true spirituality (on this point).  I encourage any believer not to follow such an example.  If that person refuses to give you the info to get back to him, he really, once again, is playing parlor games.  Someone seriously seeking will desire an answer.  Even if the answer is intellectually unsatisfying to an unbeliever, the Holy Spirit is working at a deeper level than mere intellect.  Your or my desire to speak the truth and live up to one’s promises can speak into a person’s spirit stronger than just the facts alone.  The work of the Word and the Holy Spirit is something part intellectual and part spiritual in a way we cannot understand here on earth.

            You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com. For more info on organic church*, visit http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally at (local website)

Some of the material in this came from a speech from Glen Davis, who, to the last of my knowledge, is a Chi Alpha campus pastor at Stanford University.

On the recording, at this time, it says, “house churches.”  While that phrasing is OK, to say “organic church” is better.  I comment on that in blip 94.