How to Respond to Any Belief with Truth and Grace

Suppose you have just sat down for a meal with some friends at Waffle House. Right after you order the famous “All-Star Breakfast” for a measly $12.99, your friend brings up the topic of religion. She starts in about her aggravation with Christianity by saying, “It’s just waaayyyy too rigid. There’s a rule for everything, and there is a whole lot of judgment thrown your way whenever you color outside the lines a little.” Her comment immediately gets your attention, and you lock in to hear where this goes. She continues, “Surely that’s not what life is about – thinking every little thing is as important as life and death.” As you sit across from her, you feel a little nervous about saying anything but also realize that God has just opened the door for you to talk to her about the gospel. A million different thoughts come to your head about what you could say. You start thinking about your testimony and Bible verses and random apologetic stuff you’ve heard. Suddenly, however, your friend says, “That’s why I really think that all this religion-thinking is just a bunch of junk. I think that the world is just a dream. It’s not actually here, and what we do doesn’t actually matter. We are just along for the ride. Don’t you think so?” You think to yourself, “What? I’ve literally never heard of someone thinking that this world is just a dream, and now I’ve got to figure out what in the world to say!”

            In moments like that, it is easy to freeze up or just say, “Can I think about that and get back to you?” Of course, there is nothing wrong with asking to have some time to think about what they said (this is way better than acting like you know everything!). However, it is very helpful to be able to think on the spot so that you can go ahead and take advantage of the opportunity that God has given you to talk with someone. To do this, it’s good to have a few questions that you can ask yourself that will help you navigate through an idea, especially one that you have never heard before. There is no perfect method, of course, but an awesome set of questions that you can think through is the “Inside-Out Method.” Mark Allen and Josh Chatraw created this method with more depth and questions,[1] but a simplified version of their “Inside-Out Method” consists of just three questions. First, what can be affirmed about their belief? Second, what can be critiqued? Third, how does Christianity offer a better answer? It is called the “Inside-Out Method” because it starts on the “inside” of the other person’s beliefs and then moves outward to how Christianity offers a better answer.

            Let’s shift back to that original scenario and apply the “Inside-Out Method.”

            You start pouring syrup over your really delicious-looking chocolate chip waffle and reply to your friend, “I’ve never heard someone say that before.” Now, you think through the first question (“What can be affirmed about their belief?”). You say, “I think that I agree that Christianity can sometimes sound like a long list of do’s and do not’s.” Now, you think through the second question (What can be critiqued?”). You continue, “The problem is, however, how do you find any evidence to support that this life is just a dream? We can ask ‘what if?’ about anything, but the real question is what the most reasonable conclusion is?” Finally, you ask yourself the last question (How does Christianity offer a better answer?”). You say, “Honestly, I think what the evidence leads towards the best is Christianity. However, this isn’t the same Christianity that you have been talking about, but one about a Savior who came to save us because we could not save ourselves.”

With only those three questions, you were able to evaluate the idea on the spot and get the conversation centered on Jesus!

Chatraw, Josh, and Mark D Allen. Apologetics at the Cross: An Introduction for Christian Witness. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2019.