What
Keeps People from Becoming Christians?
When we witness, we will hear many questions about faith. Behind
those questions lie the person’s experiences. Those
experiences cause barriers to faith. And not all of these
barriers are intellectual. When we witness, we may be called upon
to build bridges across cultural pressures, historical memories,
and personal feelings - all of which vary greatly from one person
to another.
When dealing with a individual and our witness to them, the
question needs to be particularized: “What stops this person
from coming to faith?” Note the various barriers to
faith in the quote from Christian apologist Michael Green:
“I think of one atheist I met who became one overnight
through the death of the father whom he idolized . . . .
I think of another celebrated atheist, with whom I was due to
debate. During dinner beforehand, it became evident that
the cause of her atheism was a series of terrible experiences in
a catholic school as a youngster. Another was a survivor of
Auschwitz. Another was brought up in a strongly
anti-religious home, and had imbibed his parents’ attitude
uncritically . . . . We must be people centered in our
approach and discover, if possible, what lies beneath the atheist
front. It may of course be sheer reasoning, but I have
found that rarely the case. Whatever the cause, we need to
find it out before we can hope to deal with the person
appropriately.”
Intellectual
Barriers to Faith
Some people have real difficulty in accepting Christianity
because they see real intellectual obstacles in their path.
Many of these are familiar to us. “How can I believe
in God in the face of human suffering?” “Science
has made Christianity irrelevant.” “The idea of
Jesus Christ being divine is a logical contradiction.”
For some throwing intellectual problems at the Christian
evangelist is like a warplane ejecting flares to divert
heat-seeking missiles. It is a decoy. Intellectualism
is, however a real problem. Below are some areas of
difficulty.
a. “Christianity is a hangover from the
intellectual dark ages. It no longer has a place in
the modern world.” This argument is almost as old
as religion itself. The past 250 years have given us the
modern versions of these arguments in the form of Enlightenment
rationalism and the scientific worldview.
b. “The idea of ‘a god’ is simply some
kind of wish fulfillment. Because we feel the need for God
we invent one.” This view finds its roots in
existential philosophy and in psychology. Freud had a field
day with this one.
c. “The existence of suffering makes nonsense the
idea of a loving God.” The problem of pain,
suffering, and evil is a serious one and is a barrier to a great
many people.
d. “There are many religions, all making
truth claims. Christianity is just one among many. Why
should I pay any more attention to it than any other religion?”
Religious pluralism is a major problem in today’s
politically correct “mood.”
e. “Christianity rests on a series of
unjustifiable, outdated, and ideas that cannot be taken seriously
in the modern world” Three such areas of argument are
(1) the Resurrection, (2) the doctrine of the incarnation, and
(3) the idea of sin and salvation.
Historical
Associations of Christianity
History hold the key to understanding the present. History
causes us to ask how the present came to be. Our ideas and
attitudes are shaped by what has come before. One of the
most common historical barriers to the faith relates to the
institution of the church. Christianity tends to get
identified with the institutional church. The truth and
relevance of the Gospel become dependent on the quality of its
institutions and ministers. There is a great deal of
condemnation by association.
The Gospel is often rejected because of the associations a person
makes with the institutional church. Prejudices and opinion
do not determine whether a fact is true or not. A
person’s perceptions, however, often govern their reality.
The
Problem of Relevance
A common response to rational justifications of Christianity runs
like this: “What you say may well be reasonable. It
may well be true. But it lacks any real relevance to life.
Why should I be interested in such irrelevant ideas, even if they
are true?” Many people feel exactly this way about
Christianity. There is a failure to grasp what the
“benefits of Christ” really are. If the Gospel
seems irrelevant it is because of our failure to take the trouble
to make it relevant.
Relevance also has a problem that finds its root in the word
“faith.” So many differing definitions of the
word float around that many people are not on the same page as
the person witnessing. Most people outside of
“faith,” however, are starting with this definition:
“Faith is about believing that certain things are
true.” Only after this has been addressed can people
begin to see faith as “trusting in the promises of God
and entering into those promises and receiving what they have to
offer.”
There are a number of areas that serve as touch-points for
Christianity in the lives of people.
a. The need to have a basis for morality. Christianity
offers a worldview that is able to give grounded morals that are
able to give moral meaning and dignity to our existence.
b. The need to have a framework for making sense of
experience. We need to understand why things happen.
Christianity offers a framework for this need.
c. The need for a vision to guide and inspire.
Without hope there is nothing. Christianity offers a vision
that offers hope. It is a vision of God’s gracious
intervention in our sinful lives, of His forgiveness of our sins,
of the continued presence and power of God in our lives, and our
hope in the resurrection of Christ.
Misunderstandings
of the Nature of Christianity
As we discussed before, many myths and fallacies exist concerning
the Christian faith. This is nothing new. Apologists
from the second century had to deal with the myth that Christians
were cannibals (taken from the practice of the Lord’s
Supper). Can you imagine how this would have been a barrier
to evangelism! In the same way modern misconceptions serve
as barriers to the Gospel today.
The
Hunger for Absolute Certainty
“Unless you can prove it to me, I won’t accept
it.” The demand for proof or a demonstration beyond
reasonable doubt brings and end to many evangelistic attempts.
But our conversations need not end here. Knowledge is not
complete - even in many other disciplines. Yet this does
not stop people from “believing” these as factual
systems. For example:
a. Historical knowledge. I may believe that
the Battle of Hastings took place in 1066, or that the
Declaration of Independence is dated 1776. But I
could be wrong. My belief rests solely on eyewitness
accounts, which may contain inaccuracies, misunderstandings, or
deliberate fabrications. We were not present at these
events yet we trust that the accounts are true. Absolute
certainty need not be a barrier to faith and our witness.
b. Scientific knowledge. Even the laws of
nature are not absolute certainties. But we must remember
that science at its core is about observation. Science
attempts to summarize past observations and predict the future.
The “laws of nature” are only descriptive. But
human observations are limited in much the same way as history.
You only know what has been seen. And what has been seen is
only explained in a manner to make it understandable.
Science has been and will continue to be wrong. Remember
how the Earth use to be at the center of the universe?
Prior
Commitment to Another Worldview
Some people are searching for the meaning of life, for personal
fulfillment, and for a belief system that will make sense
of the world and their place in it. But the different ideas
adhered to within that worldview can serve a starting place for
dialogue. Many people are not true adherents of a
particular worldview because their personal experience has caused
them to tweak and readjust their positions and thoughts. Where
there is room for these readjustments there is a crack for the
Gospel to penetrate.
The
Problem of Personal Integrity
This category of barriers is perhaps better labeled as a barrier
caused by stubbornness and pride. A person may have
held a view for so long that to abandon it may seem to be
intellectually dishonest. They may fear losing face by
admitting that they were once wrong. We can compound the
problem by making it difficult for the person to change their
minds. People like an easy out.
Sense
of Guilt or Inadequacy
Sometimes a keen awareness of sin causes the person to honestly believe that they are unlovable and unforgivable - even by God. We remember, however, that God already knows what they are like, the Gospel is meant for sinners, and the barrier raised by sin can be broken down in the person of Jesus Christ.