Best of 2020: Greg Laurie & Don Stewart on the Hard Questions Nonbelievers Ask: Part 3

The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. If you would like to know how you can become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org.

That's harvest.org. Coming up today, Pastor Greg Laurie and author Don Stewart discuss the hard questions non-believers often ask. What about the person who says, well, I believe that Jesus Christ was a great moral teacher, but, you know, I don't necessarily believe that he's the only way to God. Yeah, but Jesus claimed to be God the Son, the one way to get to the true God. And so you can't have Jesus a great teacher. A great teacher would not lie about who he is.

He's either Lord of all or not Lord at all. It's just that simple. Yeah, absolutely true. Many of us have aha moments. Something puzzles us, but then, aha, we discover the answer. We can have aha moments coming through a dictionary or a news article.

We might watch a documentary or a how-to video. But when non-believers ask tough questions about the faith, instead of offering them an aha moment, they sometimes hand us an uh-oh moment. Well, help us on the way today on A New Beginning from Pastor Greg Laurie and Bible scholar Don Stewart. Let's give a warm harvest welcome to Don Stewart. Hey, Don.

Hey, Greg. So, Don, have you ever been asked a question you, like, did not know the answer to? Yeah, in fact, every question I was ever asked, Greg, the first time I was asked, I didn't know the answer. And so what I said, I don't know, but I'll find out. So the next time they asked it, I knew the answer.

Oh, yeah, all the time, one of the early years. So that brings us to the question, what about when you're asked a question you don't know the answer to, what do you do? Yeah, you just say, look, I don't know, but I will find out because somebody knows the answer. The answers are there. It's just finding where they're at. And don't let people tell you because you don't know the answer on the spot and that one second is, oh, that's it. Christianity falls down.

No, not at all. And so people have thought that and said that, but, no, I don't know the answer, but I'll find it out. Because, again, there are answers, and that's the great news. Yeah, that's right. Should we still quote the Bible if people say they don't believe the Bible? Well, yeah, the power is in the Word of God there. You really should because there's something about the words of Scripture penetrating deep in the heart, doesn't it?

It just gets you. And so that's why we want people to read the Bible, to hear the Bible, and that's why we ought to memorize the Bible. That's right. And be able to quote it when we can. Yeah, because God says, my word will not return void. It will prosper in the place where I send it.

And it's alive and powerful. And, you know, I think the key to effective communication and sharing our faith is, you know, the role of apologetics to me is to maybe remove a barrier that's stopping a good conversation from happening. You address the question, but the ultimate thing, like I've said before, is not to win the argument. It's to win the soul.

So the power of the gospel is in the story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So I want to beat a quick path to that. Answer the question to the best of my ability. If I don't have the answer, say, that's a great question.

I'm going to get back to you on that. I'm going to talk to my pastor or call Don Stewart or find a book with an answer, talk to someone who's more mature in the faith. But let me come back to what I do know, and let me tell you about Jesus. Exactly. Wouldn't you say? Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what you do.

And you said it right, Greg. What we do in apologetics is remove roadblocks and doubts, because we all have been taught things. You can't trust the Bible. Jesus maybe never existed.

We don't know much about him. Evolution is true or, you know, God is evil if he does exist. And so by answering these questions, what we want the person to do is see Christ on the cross with no roadblocks in the way and realize that he died for them and make a decision for Christ. It's not to win an argument, not to prove how smart we are, but it's to bring them to the cross of Christ. That is the reason we do what we do. You know, when Jesus spoke with the woman at the well, she got off on a debate about where God should be worshiped, right? And, you know, Samaritans believe this, and then you Jews believe that. And Jesus did address the issue, but then he came back to the main issue. And I think what we want to try to do is avoid rabbit trails that take us too far off and especially avoid things like political debates. My objective is not to win a political argument. It's to show them their need for Jesus Christ. Those are secondary issues to me.

I want to get to the main message of who Jesus is and what he promised and how to come into a relationship with him. Right. So evolution. Dinosaurs. We've got to get to dinosaurs.

Okay. Because someone asked this question about dinosaurs. Are dinosaurs in the Bible and what about evolution?

Okay. The word dinosaur wouldn't be in the Bible because it wasn't coined in the 19th century by the British scientist Sir Richard Owen. And so it means terrible lizard. So, no, that word isn't in the Bible.

But the teaching is, Joe 4015, that describes a creature that we would call a brontosaurus, that all the, you know, the different things a brontosaurus has, you know, the hugeness of it. It wasn't a meteor. It wasn't a carnivore. Leviathan. Yeah. Leviathan.

Another one. Yeah. You've got two of them, the behemoth and the leviathan.

And so behemoth in 4015 and leviathan right before sea creature. Yeah. And so they were describing creatures that we don't see today, Greg. That's true.

But Job knew of them. Yeah. And they were talking about real creatures. So if God created the land animals on the sixth day, then that would include the dinosaurs.

Right. So evolution. Someone says, well, I believe in evolution. I believe we evolved from apes and, you know, therefore I don't believe I'm created by God and I'm not accountable to God.

How would you respond to that? Well, again, Job 38-4, when Job and his friends were pooling their ignorance, God broke into Job and said, where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. In other words, were you there? Well, no, none of us were there. Well, God was there and he tells us what he did. Now, evolution says chance, blind chance. There's two choices people have, chance or design. And all you have to do is look at the human body.

Whether you look microscopically or telescopically, anywhere in the universe, what will you see? Design, purpose. Whenever you see design and purpose, there's always a designer and a purposer who puts that together. And that is the God of the – but that says some type of God exists. And the God of the Bible tells us who he is.

And he explains he is the creator God. Evolution, again, says everything happened by blind chance. But we live in a world that doesn't seem like it's by blind chance, do we?

No, we live in a world that seems pretty regular and orderly. And how did it get that way? And how did it get that way without destroying itself? You know, eons ago, it's because it didn't come about by chance.

God created it. What about the person who says, well, I believe that Jesus Christ was a great man, maybe the greatest man who ever lived. He was a great moral teacher and a guru or a prophet, et cetera. But, you know, I don't necessarily believe that he's the only way to God.

But, you know, if you found, you know, fulfillment through Christianity and your religion, that's fine. But I'm finding it my own way, but I don't think Jesus is anyone special. Yeah, but Jesus claimed to be more than a mere man. He claimed to be God the Son, the one way to get to the true God. He either was or he was not. If he was not, he was either a liar, knowing he wasn't the one way to get to the one God and said it anyway, or he's a lunatic thinking he was the one way to get to the one God, but it wasn't. And so you can't have Jesus as a great teacher. A great teacher would not lie about who he is and himself and claim to be God. It just doesn't work that way. He's either Lord of all or not Lord at all. It's just that simple. Yeah, it's true. So let's shift gears to other questions outside of just non-believers asking.

Here's one that someone asked. Do you believe we will be raptured soon? And what is soon? And many say now we will go through the great tribulation period.

Possible. Let's explain terms. Rapture is a word used in 1 Thessalonians 4.17, which talks about a generation of Christians that will be caught up. That's the word rapture, caught up to meet the Lord in the air. As they're caught up alive, they will be changed from mortal to immortal. Right before that happens, the dead in Christ rise first. Those who have died, their bodies in the grave, spirits with the Lord, they will be joined together and will all be completed at that time. 1 Thessalonians 4.18 says, comfort one another with these words. That's an event that's talked about in the New Testament.

1 Thessalonians 4.13-18, 1 Corinthians 15.51-58, and John 14.1-3 all talks about this, about Jesus coming for his own. Now, the timing of that, and if it happens soon, it could, but we don't know. We don't know.

But, Greg, you know, here's the thing. We need to live every day as though it were our last. In fact, John Wesley, I think it was John Wesley, once told a group of young preachers, preach every sermon as though it will be your last, and one day you'll be right. You know, so what you do, you live each day that way because you don't know.

You don't know. None of us are promised tomorrow. James says our life is like a vapor, like a puff of smoke, just here and gone. And so whether it happens in our generation, we're going to see the Lord one way or another anyway. And so, but while we're here, the time of waiting is a time of working, not standing on the launch pad ready to blast off in some white outfit, but getting out and preaching the gospel.

That's right. Getting out and preaching the gospel, that's the operative phrase there. You know, Martin Luther said, I'm paraphrasing, there are two days in my life, there's this day and that day.

And basically the day before me that God has given, and then that day, the day of the Lord. Pastor Greg Laurie will have more of his discussion with Don Stewart in just a moment. Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here, personally inviting you to join us for what we call Harvest at Home. It's a Bible study. It's a worship service. It's church in your home.

Maybe you're not able to get out to your church right now. If so, join us for Harvest at Home. People are listening in from around the world and listen to this. We have seen thousands of people make a commitment to follow Christ.

So join us this weekend for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org. Well today, Pastor Greg's guest is author and Bible scholar Don Stewart. It's a fast-paced discussion of the subjects and questions that catch believers off guard while sharing their faith. Today's presentation is one of the most requested by our listeners.

Let's do a lightning round. I'll just give you a term and give me a really brief explanation of it, okay? So you define the rapture, come back to it again. The rapture is what? The catching up of living believers to meet the Lord.

And then will be changed, transformed as they're caught up. What is the Great Tribulation period? It's called the 70th week of Daniel or the time of Jacob's trouble.

It is a seven-year period where the wrath of God hits those upon the earth. Okay, who is the Antichrist? The Antichrist is the final Antichrist. Many Antichrists have come according to 1 John 2.18. The final one will be a Gentile world ruler. He's called the first beast of Revelation chapter 13. He'll be a world ruler.

His cohort, the false prophet, will have everyone worship him. What was the best Beatles song? Hey Jude.

What? I said Hey Jude. That's your answer? Yeah. The best Beatles song is Hey Jude.

Yeah. That's a good one. What was the worst Beatles song?

The Ballad of John and Yoko. Some people here don't know what we're talking about. Some do.

I just like to throw little things in when we talk. Okay, back to end times events. The 144,000 Jehovah's Witnesses, right? No, 12,000 of each of the 12 tribes of Israel.

They're mentioned for us who they are. Okay, the second coming. Distinguish the second coming from the rapture.

Yeah. The rapture is always a time of joy and blessedness for believers. The second coming is a time of judgment where God comes to earth and judges the believers. This is when Christ comes to earth to set up his kingdom upon the earth. Now the good news, you and I, those who know Christ are going to come with him and we're going to rule with him.

Isn't that great? Yeah. That's right. What's the battle of Armageddon? Well, Armageddon is more of a campaign, a final war which meets at the plain of Megiddo which is in Israel and moves towards Jerusalem. And it's kind of the final battle as the Lord intervenes at that time, rescues the Jewish people. At that time actually turned to faith in Christ as the Messiah.

And he comes back then and clobbers the enemies, the anti-Christ, destroys him, false prophet and sets up his kingdom. The millennium, what is that? Millennium is the Latin word for thousand. I mean a thousand year reign of Christ on the earth which will happen after his second coming. We believe in a literal millennium. Some people don't.

But it's symbolic. We believe there will be a literal thousand years that Christ will reign as an intermediate kingdom before eternity begins. What is the New Jerusalem? New Jerusalem is great. That's Revelation 21, 1 to 5. The city that comes down from heaven where you and I will live in.

Probably one of the greatest passages in all the Bible is Revelation 21, 1 to 5 where it talks about the New Jerusalem coming down. God will dwell with us. We will be his people. He will be our God. He will wipe away all tears. There will be no more pain, no more crying.

The former things have passed away and we'll be with him forever and ever and ever. That's right. Yes. Why do you have so many cats? Well, I like cats. How many cats do you have? Right now, six. Well, we have a dog too.

Do you drive a Prius? No, I'm kidding. No, no.

What are the names of all your cats? Okay, we have Vanilla, the one you like. Well, you do.

I do. I like Vanilla. Vanilla likes your book. He sent me a picture of Vanilla like, what was Vanilla doing? Vanilla was curled up with your book. Vanilla liked your book and she curled up on it and we took a picture of it and sent it to Greg. Has Vanilla ever heard me preach because I've said some bad things about cats? No, Vanilla's forgiven you.

But she's very picky who she likes and she likes you. I'm honored. Say hello to Vanilla for me. Okay, we do. And then we have another cat called Chai who is, there's no guile in Chai. Why would you name a cat Chai? I didn't.

My oldest daughter did. Okay, who else is that? Well, we got Mama Cat and Mama Cat is kind of the big one.

They had the other ones. Coco, the black cat that always talks. Coco is funny. Yeah. And then Scrubby, it's got a half mustache, kind of like that.

One of us, I want to scrub it off. That's what we named her. Yeah, Scrubby. And then there was Belle. Belle's the last cat. That's my daughter.

My other daughter, Kelsey, picked out Belle. Okay, so let's wrap this up. Are you guys bored? Has this been boring? Because we've burned through a bunch of time.

But we have a lot of fun, Donna and I, talking about all kinds of things. Okay, so we say, oh, the gospel. Preach the gospel. Share the gospel. The gospel. The gospel. In a nutshell, what is the gospel?

I need to know because I'm an evangelist and I have to preach it soon. So tell me so I have the answer to this question. Yeah, well, yeah.

Let's hope you do before you get out there. Now, this is something all of us need to be able to do. And it's very simple. God created the human race perfect because of the sin of the first parents, Adam and Eve, the world is imperfect. It's not, again, this is not the world God created. But to bring humankind back to God, God the Son, 2,000 years ago, became a human being. He died for the sins of the world. He died in our place so we could know him in a personal way. He rose from the dead, proving he was the one whom he claimed to be. He ascended into heaven. And someday he's going to come back and join the living and the dead. But the gospel very simply is Christ died for our sins.

He was buried and he rose again, 1 Corinthians 15, 1 to 3. And so the message that Greg preaches so well and that all of us hopefully are doing too is that there is a God, there is one way to get to the one God, and the gospel says Jesus Christ is the answer for all of us, not just our answer, your answer too. And that's the gospel in a nutshell. That's right. Amen.

Thank you. What happens to a non-believer if they die without Jesus Christ? Yeah, Luke 16 actually tells us what happened. There's two people that died, a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus. The rich man did not know the Lord and he went to this place in the realm of the dead where he was conscious. He was still aware of who he was, where he was. He was in a place of torment, a place of punishment.

And he realized, Greg, that he knew who he was, he knew where he was, he knew why he was there, and he knew that he didn't want anybody else to go there either. And that tells us, Luke 16 verse 19, about to verse 30, what happens to the unbeliever when they die. It's a place, a temporary place of punishment waiting for the final judgment, Revelation 20, 11 to 15, when the great white throne judgment takes place. So once you die, there's no other chances after death.

No, that's it. That's why we need to share the gospel. I mean, here's the bottom line. You know, the bottom line of the gospel is if you believe in Jesus, your sin is forgiven and you can go to heaven when you die and you will not go to hell. That's the big message. All the other wonderful things we've talked about, the peace and joy and purpose, those are wonderful things.

But the bottom line is that. And so someone is listening right now and they say, okay, I want to believe the gospel. I want to know that I'll go to heaven when I die.

What do they need to do? It's real simple, they just need to say a simple prayer or something like this, God, if you're God and Jesus Christ, if you're the son of God, then right this moment, the best way that I know how I want to trust you as savior. And Greg, you know, God accepts that. Remember the criminal next to Jesus on the cross just said, remember me. The Lord knows the heart.

It's not the position of the body so much as the position of the heart. The Lord knows your heart and you don't have to use flowery words. You just say, I want to know Jesus.

It's up along that line. It's real simple, isn't it? It really is. You know, the day I became a Christian, I really understood so little of what I was doing. But I knew this. I believed what I heard about Jesus Christ. I wanted to know Jesus Christ.

And so I prayed this prayer. And, you know, I think we way over complicate this thing. And it's not as hard as we think it is.

And it's not as hard to share the gospel as we think it is. And you know more than you think you do. You know, I think a lot of times folks say, well, I just don't know that much.

You know a lot. If you come to church and you listen, you read your Bible, you have a lot of information stored in your mind. And the key is that the Holy Spirit can take these things that we've read and He can bring them to our memory in a supernatural way, can't He?

Yeah, He sure can. And, Greg, you're right. You know, when I came to Christ, I was in an audience like this and I saw people like this that had something I didn't have. I just, you know, during the service I said, God, I want whatever they got. That was my prayer to come to Christ. And it's very simple. You know, a child can do it. And Jesus said, allow the little children to come to me for such the kingdom of heaven. We make it difficult, but God's made it so simple that anybody can do it.

Very true. And, Don, we are glad you responded to the gospel and that you're serving the Lord and helping all of us. So let's thank Don Stewart.

Thanks, Don. So we're going to close on prayer right now and I want to extend an invitation because there might be someone that has joined us who isn't sure if they're going to heaven. You know, we've been talking about how to talk to nonbelievers and you're a nonbeliever and we, in effect, have been talking right to you.

So we want you to leave here knowing your sin is forgiven, leaving here knowing that you have a relationship with God and that can happen by you saying yes to Jesus. He died on the cross. He rose again from the dead. He's with us right now.

He's standing at the door of your heart and He is knocking and He is saying if you'll hear His voice and open the door, He will come in. Would you like that to happen for you? It can happen just like it happened for Don 150 years ago.

And like it happened for me. Ten years after you. Actually, we both came to Christ the same year, did we not? 1970 for me.

1970 was a good year for Don and me. So many of you weren't even born then but that's when Don and I became Christians and we're very glad of it. And so we're praying that this is your night if you haven't asked Jesus into your heart yet, into your life yet. Let's do that together and respond to this invitation I'll give you now as we pray. Father, thank You for this time to look at Your Word and to find answers from Scripture. And I pray for any person here, any person listening or watching wherever they might be. Lord, help them to see their need for Jesus and help them to come to You now. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Pastor Greg Laurie with an important word of prayer. And if you'd like to make a change today in your relationship with the Lord, Pastor Greg would like to help you with that and he'll do so before today's edition of A New Beginning concludes. Well, we featured a fascinating conversation between Pastor Greg and Bible scholar Don Stewart today.

In fact, it's one of the top ten most requested presentations of the past year. And if you missed any part, you can catch up by listening online at harvest.org. Download an MP3 for later if you'd like. Or order a permanent copy on CD by calling 1-800-821-3300. Look for the title, Greg Laurie and Don Stewart on the hard questions non-believers ask.

Again, our 24-hour phone number is 1-800-821-3300. And then we're so happy to make available Pastor Greg's new film, A Rush of Hope. It draws on riveting true life stories from three memorable movies, including Woodlawn. One person, alone in the dark, willing to speak the truth when it's not popular. One person, willing to speak the truth when it is not safe, when there is much at stake.

Look around you. We're not alone. It touches on so many issues affecting our culture today. A Rush of Hope, available now on DVD, exclusively from The New Beginning. Pastor Greg, this cinematic crusade fits squarely into our mission of knowing Him and making Him known, doesn't it? Yes, there's a message to everything that we're doing. And ultimately, I'm going to just present the gospel in a straightforward way to the person who's watching.

Tell them who Jesus is, how to come into a relationship with Him. And I'm going to answer those big questions of life, such as, why am I here? What is the meaning of my life?

What happens after I die? And who let the dogs out? No, I won't answer that question.

I don't care who let the dogs out. Remember that song? Okay, no.

But I will answer those other three questions because the Bible has answers to those questions and more. And so we're going to put this resource in your hands, and all you've got to do is order it. You say, well, what do I need to do? We'll send it to you for your gift of any size. Yeah, that's right, and when you request A Rush of Hope, you'll not only get the full movie on DVD, but extra resources to help you reach out and host a watch party based on the film, including an evangelistic booklet called Life's Most Important Questions. Hey, one other thing I would add about this, Dave, is when you order the DVD, we have a special digital download code. What that means is you can download it to your phone, to your tablet, to your computer, and take it with you. Imagine, you can have an evangelistic crusade in your pocket, on your phone, on your tablet device. You could sit down with someone and say, let's watch this right now. Put the tablet in front of them or the laptop in front of them and watch it with them, and they can hear the Gospel. So this is a special resource.

You not only get the DVD, but the special digital download to carry with you wherever you go. Yeah, that's right, and all of this is available exclusively from A New Beginning and Harvest Ministries. It's our gift to you to thank you for your donation. So write today at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California 92514, or call 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300.

We're here to take your call around the clock 24 hours a day, or go online to harvest.org. Pastor Greg, you spoke today about having a relationship with the Lord. Someone can enter into that kind of relationship with God right now, can't they? Yeah, they really can. That's the amazing thing. I think people are surprised that it doesn't take years to become a Christian.

It doesn't take months, it doesn't take weeks, it doesn't take days, it doesn't even take hours. You can believe on the spot. And I would like to lead you in a prayer where you can ask for His forgiveness, a prayer where you can receive Jesus Christ into your life as your Savior and Lord. So if you want Christ to come into your life, if you want Him to forgive you of your sin, if you want a second chance in life, if you want to go to heaven when you die, stop what you're doing and pray after me these words. Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner, and I'm sorry for my sin, and I turn from it now, and I choose to follow You from this moment forward as Savior and Lord, as God and friend. Thank You for loving me and calling me and forgiving me. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. And listen, if you have just prayed those words with Pastor Greg and meant them sincerely, the Lord has heard you and forgiven you of your sin.

The Bible tells us Jesus is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And we'd like to send you some materials to help you begin to live this new life. We call it our New Believers' Growth Packet. Ask for it, and we'll send it to you free of any charge if you prayed for the first time today with Pastor Greg. You can write a new beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514, or call 1-800-821-3300.

We can take your call anytime. Again, dial 1-800-821-3300, or just go online to harvest.org and click the words No Guide. Next time, Pastor Greg continues our series of Top 10 Most Requested Studies of the past year, as he presents a message called God's Plan for Sex and Marriage. Join us next time here on A New Beginning. The preceding message from Greg Laurie was made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for Pastor Greg's free daily email devotions at harvest.org.