Your Questions
Thanks for submitting great questions to the live Q&A session with our speakers! Gavin Matthews from our team (you may have met his smiling face at the Solas stand) has compiled some extra resources for you to explore based on all your questions. We hope this is helpful for you to explore some of them further.
- Q: Where do we stand evangelising on the streets or door knocking in Scotland today as regards the law? I want to evangelise. I know there will be a cost.
A: The Speak Up booklet published by Evangelical Alliance and Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship.
- Q: How do you get from ‘have you ever wondered about justice?’ to the cross and Jesus, in conversation?
A: Michael Ots webinar “Evangelism to the Apathetic”, see also Andy’s article here.
- Q: How do you relate asking questions and evangelising to the “post truth” age? What do you do when the answer is always “that’s true for you but not for me, it’s cool that you believe that but I don’t?”
A: Short Answers episode 29
- Q: Friends husband died 47 years old, heart attack In front of her she tried to resuscitate did not manage, paramedics did not either, has a understanding of God and asks why did he let the happen.
- A: Amy Orr-Ewing webinar on suffering
- Q: Is sharing the gospel in the workplace possible today? Is it acceptable? Can it be done? How?
A: See our series on Christians in the workplace – Frontlines
Visit our friends at transformworkuk.org
Read https://www.solas-cpc.org/four-key-principles-for-aplogetics/ - Q: How do we respond to the effects of the political polarisation of the world bringing division to the church?
A: Watch Short Answers episode 42 and episode 43 - Q: Is neuroplasticity and FMRI being undeveloped evidence enough to explain differences in genetically similar brains? And if people use this as an argument against consciousness how would you counter it?
A: Refer to Sharon Dirckx Am I Just My Brain?
- Q: My work pushing the diversity and inclusion theme. A colleague, a devout UK Muslim spoke to me about it, how we as people of faith face it. Any thoughts how to lead this chat further on our faith?
A: Contact transformworkuk.org they have a number of Christian people working within the inclusion and diversity processes in their workplaces and support Christians at work including interacting with secular employers and other faiths in the workplace.
Also recommend Andy & Michael’s Pod of the Gaps - Q: How do I address issues of gender identity and sexuality and the Christian perspective?
A: Watch “Is Christianity Transphobic?“
Read Transgender? By Vaughan Roberts (book)
Online article: https://www.livingout.org/resources/articles/73/a-christian-response-to-transgender - Q: How can I begin to respond to someone who believes anyone elderly who are suffering deserve the choice to end their life? This is always framed as kindness, which is difficult to respond well…
A: Refer to our former trustee Gordon Macdonald’s excellent work at Care Not Killing
Visit the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics
- Q: Andy in your talk about suffering when you say God suffers. Are you referring to God having compassion on our pain and Christ as a man having suffered or all aspects of the triune God suffered/Lacked?
A: Refer to the classic discussion of immutability in The Cross of Christ by John Stott
Andy says the answer is “both” – read more here. - Q: How do we approach friends who mention evolution and Darwinism as dismissing the literal creationism of the earth by God in 7 days therefore debunking the validity of Christianity?
A: Refer to John Lennox – 7 Days That Divide The World (book) - Q: How do we explain free will and pre-destination, if God’s in control of everything maybe I am just a brain?
A: Read https://www.solas-cpc.org/the-bad-theology-gap/ and also https://www.solas-cpc.org/book-am-i-just-my-brain-by-sharon-dirckx/
Refer also to Determined to Believe? by John Lennox (book) - Q: Andy, Sharon & Michael… how clever and good at speaking do you have to be to share the gospel? I feel inadequate…
A: Listen to our “normal” guests on PEP Talk podcast like Georgie Coster or Cameron McCartney.
Also take a look at the Mind the Gap series like The Adequacy Gap, The Confidence Gap, The Professional Gap or The Introvert Gap. - Q: Covid has destroyed youth ministry. What can we do?
A: Watch this webinar with Clare Williams on Reaching the Next Generation - Q: How can I use the ‘more than my brain’ evidence.. with my atheist / naturalist neighbour who is a doctor?
A: Read https://www.solas-cpc.org/a-beginners-guide-to-the-argument-from-human-value-and-dignity/ and also https://www.solas-cpc.org/what-does-it-mean-to-be-human/ - Q: How does the human mind differ from animals? Is the human mind and human consciousness unique and make us different from animals?
A: Watch Short Answers here: https://www.solas-cpc.org/shortanswers58/
