Many that you wish to lead to Christ will say something to the effect that God is unjust and cruel, Job. xl. 2, and Romans ix. 20, are very pointed passages to use with inquirers of this class and need no comment. It might be well to preface the reading of the passages with some remark like this; “Do you know of how enormous a sin you are guilty in accusing God of being unjust and cruel? Let me read what God says about it in His Word.” Then read the passages. Romans xi. 33 will serve to show the complaining that the reason God’s ways seem unjust and cruel is because they are so deep and unsearchable; and that the trouble is not with God’s ways but the limitation of their understanding. Heb. xii. 5, 7, 10, 11 are especially useful in cases where the inquirer complains because of his own misfortunes or sorrows. Is. lv. 8‒9 will often times prove helpful. Not infrequently you will meet with one who will say that “God is unjust to create men and then damn them.” Turn such an one to Ezek. xxxiii. 11. This passage meets this complaint by showing that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but desires their welfare and that the wicked bring damnation upon themselves by their stubborn refusal to repent. 1 Tim. ii. 3‒4, shows that God, so far from creating man to damn him, desires that all men be saved. 2 Peter iii. 9, teaches that God is not willing that any should perish and is delaying His purposes in order that all may come to repentance. John v. 40, and Matt. xxiii. 37, show that the whole cause of man’s damnation is his own willful and persistent refusal to come to Christ. John iii. 36, and iii. 16, are also helpful in many cases.
2. THOSE WHO COMPLAIN OF THE BIBLE. Men will often times say, “The Bible is contradictory and absurd;” or “the Bible seems foolish to me.” Two classes of passages can be used in dealing with such inquirers.
a. 1 Cor. i. 18; ii. 14; 2 Cor. iv. 3‒4; Dan. xii. 10; Rom. xi. 33, 34 and in extreme cases 2 Thes. ii. 10, 11, 12.
b. Jno. vii. 17; Ps. xxv. 14; Matt. xi. 25, (see remarks under Serious Minded Skeptics and Skeptics who are Triflers.) Sometimes the best thing to do with a man who says the Bible is full of contradictions, is to hand him your Bible and ask him to show you one. In most cases he will not attempt to do it; as people who complain about the Bible, as a rule know nothing about its contents. One day a man was brought to me to deal with and when I asked him why he was not a Christian he replied, “The Bible is full of contradictions.” I at once asked him to show me one. “Oh!” he said, “it’s full of them.” I said, “If it is full of them you ought to be able to show me one.” He said, “Well, there is one in Psalms.” I said, “Show it to me.” He commenced looking in the back of the New Testament for the book of Psalms. I said, “You are not looking in the right part of the Bible for Psalms. Let me find it for you.” I found him the book of Psalms and handed it to him. After fumbling around he said, “I could find it, if I had my own Bible here.” “Well,” I said, “Will you bring your Bible to–night?” He promised he would and agreed to meet me at a certain place in the church. The appointed hour came, but he did not. Some months afterwards in another series of meetings in the same church one of the workers stopped me and said, “Here’s a man I wish you would deal with; he is a skeptic.” I looked at him and recognized him as the same man. “Oh!” I said, “you are the man that lied to me here;” and with much confusion he admitted that he was, but he was still playing his old game of saying that the Bible was full of contradictions. In nine cases out of ten, men who say this, know nothing about the Bible, and when you ask them to show you a contradiction in the Bible they are filled with confusion.