CHAPTER IX.

DEALING WITH THE COMPLAINING

1. THOSE WHO COMPLAIN OF GOD.

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.

3. THOSE WHO COMPLAIN OF GOD’S WAY OF SALVATION.

A great many men will say, “I do not see why God could not save men in some other way than by the death of His son.” Is. lv. 8, 9, Romans xi. 33 are useful in dealing with such. I have used Romans ix. 20 with effect with men of this sort. A young student said to me one night, when I asked why he was not a Christian, that he did not see why it was necessary for Christ to die for him; why God did not save him in some other way. I opened my Bible and read to him Romans ix. 20, and put the question right to him, “Who art thou that repliest against God?” and then said to him, “Do you realize what you are doing, that you are condemning God?” The young man very much confused said “I did not mean to do that.” “Well,” I said; “that is what you are doing.” “If that is so,” he replied, “I will take it back.” A good way to do with such men is to show them by the use of passages given under the chapter “Dealing with the Indifferent” that they are lost sinners. When any one is led to see this, God’s way of salvation will approve itself as just the thing.

4. THOSE WHO COMPLAIN OF CHRISTIANS. Very frequently when we try to persuade men to accept Christ as their Saviour, they reply; “_There are too many hypocrites in church_.” Romans xiv. 4 and 12, especially the latter verse, are exceedingly effective in dealing with such.

Romans ii. 1, and Matt. vii. 1‒5, are also excellent. Jno. xxi. 21, 22 is useful in showing the objector that he is solely responsible for his own relation to Christ and that what others do is none of his affairs. Sometimes the inquirer will _complain of the way Christian people have treated him_. In such a case turn the attention of the inquirer from the way in which Christian people have treated him to the way in which God has treated him. For this purpose use Jer. ii. 5; Is. liii. 5; Romans v. 6‒8. Then ask him if the fact that Christians have treated him badly is any excuse for his treatment of a Heavenly Father who has treated him so well. One night turning to an aged man I asked him if he was a Christian. He replied that he was not, that he was a back–slider. I asked him why he back–slid. He replied that Christian people had treated him badly. I opened my Bible and read Jer. ii. 5, to him, “Thus saith the Lord, what iniquity have your fathers found in _me_, that they are gone far from _me_, and have walked after vanity and are become vain?” I said, “Did you find any iniquity in God? Did God not use you well?” With a good deal of feeling the man admitted that God had not treated him badly and I held him right to this point of God’s treatment of him, and not man’s treatment, and his treatment of God. Matt. xviii. 23‒35; Eph. iv. 30‒32; Matt. vi. 14‒15, are also useful as showing the absolute necessity of our forgiving men.