There are people today who say that Christianity has been proven false by science.

Or that it's just a psychological crutch for those who think they need it.

Today on Truth For Life, Alistair Begg teaches us how to respond to these challenging perspectives

with humility and sensitivity, and he points us to the ultimate goal in evangelism.

There is no way in the world that I can give some kind of exhaustive answer to these questions,

and so if there is a measure of frustration on your part as I move from one question to the next,

I have, if you like, that written into what I'm doing, I want that to be there in part

because any good teacher does not answer all the questions, but essentially stimulates

the desire of the group to go and continue their study of the subject.

And so I'd like at least to fall within the orb of good teaching as it relates to that,

if that is an actual fact and accurate statement, and the teachers perhaps can tell me afterwards.

What about the person who says I can't believe in a God who allows people to suffer?

More often than not, if you take time to listen and to watch and it may not come out in one conversation,

you will discover that you are dealing with somebody who has been deeply scarred by the events of life.

Now, if a person is prepared to confide in you that truth,

it's important then that we're honest enough to say, you know what, I don't have an answer for that particular question.

And indeed, we could search the whole of the Bible and not find an answer to that particular question.

And it may be that it will take years or it may take to letanity before ever we find an answer to that question,

but in the meantime, the scripture provides for us some clues as to why God allows suffering as a whole.

Well, says the individual, what are those clues?

Then we'll run through with him the biblical doctrine of creation and the fall of redemption and of restoration or perfection, if you like.

Well, says somebody that makes only limited sense and I still think of God as distant in the heavens and untouched as it were by the problems that we face in our finite nature.

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