I had an interesting conversation with a lady at a laundromat. She was an atheist. I love a good conversation with an atheist. Why? Their points are very easy to poke holes in.
I used some very simple logic with her that I talk about in One Heartbeat Away: CDAO—Creation, Design, Art, and Order. I said, “If that washing machine over there had a creator, if your cellphone had a designer, if artwork had an artist, and if I lined up twenty Coke cans in a row and they had an orderer, then, when you look around the universe, what do you see? You see the sun, moon, stars, oceans, trees, DNA with 2 billion pieces to it, and much more. So, if everything else had a creator, designer, artist, or orderer behind it, why would you not think that there is a Creator, Designer, Artist, Orderer behind this universe?
She couldn’t give me a clear response, so she went to the Big Bang. No worries. I have heard that argument many times. I said, “Every time you see an explosion, is there more or less order afterward?” She wouldn’t answer. “The answer is less. When a grenade blows something up, when a bomb goes off in a building, etc., there is always less order than more. But yet, with the ‘Big Bang,’ a massive explosion created the earth, set the sun moving in perfect precision, and lets me tell you the day of a full moon and when Haley’s comment is going to pass by. Does that make sense to you?”
She couldn’t answer that one either. I then asked, “Why did the ‘Big Bang’ bang?” She stated that the universe caused it to bang! As you can see, there is really no way to defend her position. “Can it bang again?” I asked her. She said, “It might!” Please go out and buy a hard helmet, maybe like a motorcycle helmet, just in case we have some more banging in our future!
Then I asked her, “Who do you think Jesus is? That is really the crux of the whole matter. When Jesus said to Peter, ‘What do you say that I am?’ He meant it. You must have an answer to that question.” She said, “He is a fictitious character.” Yikes. What a bad answer. But I have had that one before as well. I explained to her that you don’t even need the Bible to prove that Jesus existed. Historians of that time, like Tacitus and Josephus, wrote about Jesus. She said she learned in class that you can’t trust all history. Well, that is a correct statement, but does that mean we trust none of history?
I walked her through the Ten Commandments and explained to her about Jesus dying for us. I then asked, “If you could find out if there is an All-Loving God that loves you unconditionally, would you want that to be true?” I thought that would be an easy one. She said, “No.” Fascinating answer.
As the conversation continued, she told me that she had grown up Catholic and had an uncle who molested her when she was younger. So in the minds of folks like her, it often begs the question, “Where was God when all of that was happening to me?”
She was obviously questioning things. I told her that at the ministry we teach QEQE: Question Everything and Question Everybody. It is good and healthy to question things. Nothing wrong with that at all. I encouraged her to question her professors and the things she has read that have led her to these conclusions. Truth does exist, and each of us has to find it.
At the end of our discussion, I let her know that I had prayed that day for a good, long, interesting conversation and that she was the answer to that prayer. It was fascinating to watch her face when I let her know that God answers prayers.
Please say a prayer for Nadia. A Saul-to-Paul conversion here would be ideal.
Until the nets are full,
P.S. There are a lot of people out there searching for answers. They all have a story to tell about what they believe and why they believe it. The Lord wants us to apply truth to their thinking so they can believe and be saved. And leaving them with a booklet afterward will reinforce the things you talked about.
So, let’s have a special on the suggested donation for our booklets and put them at 20% off. Be sure to check them out at the link below.
