Tools of Apologetics 1.20.3
Leading Questions
Chapter - 3
Why Do People Ask Wrong Questions?
There is a natural assumption in the hearts of many that humans naturally want to know the truth. Even believers fall into this trap of believing that people want to know the truth. This is a false belief. The Bible makes it very clear that humankind’s natural tendency is NOT to receive light but to oppose it. "And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not" (John 1:5). "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" (John 3:19).
Since our natural tendency is against wanting to know the truth, and since our human wisdom works against the discovery of divine truth, it is obvious that the way people ask questions will only lead them AWAY from truth. This is the primary reason why people ask all the wrong questions, but very seldom the right ones. However, a growing believer can learn to see the truth and ask the right questions to reveal the truth. But before we go further, it is helpful to discover some of the specific reasons for which people ask wrong questions:
1-Because Of Human Stupidity And Blindness: The natural mind is not only enmity against God, but is also full of stupidity and blindness when it comes to discovering ultimate truth. True, we by our own abilities are able to discover much bare information (as witnessed in science and technology), but this does not imply that we are able to discover ultimate truth related to the important issues of life. Else we would already have solved many human problems.
In fact in the last century there was an increasing optimism all over that in less than a century our discoveries would finally help us to totally control our own destiny. However, at the dawn of the twenty-first century everyone accepts that all the human progress that has come by ignoring God has resulted only in destruction.
The crime rate, the complexity of crime, murders, immorality, human viciousness, exploitation, corruption and whatever else one can think of, have only degenerated. None wants this to happen, but it happens because humans by themselves are stupid and blind in matters of ultimate truth. This most people do not realize, and only appropriately asked leading questions can help people to see that their human thinking is not the answer to ultimate questions.
2-Because Of Spiritual Stupidity And Blindness: The rise of the Protestant Movement brought the Bible back to the place that it should have occupied in the Church. Once the Bible became the supreme authority in all matters of Faith and Conduct, a new era of freedom dawned all over the world. Before this many European countries had been controlled by the Roman Catholic church and people’s personal freedom was nonexistent. People lived and struggled under the discipline of an iron rod and exploitation of the worst kind.
Once the Protestant Movement had brought freedom, people looked forward to freedom. However, within centuries this hope was shattered. The basic reason was our spiritual stupidity and blindness. True, the freeing of Bible from the clutches of the Romish dictators brought freedom, but soon people arrived in a situation where they did not know how to use this newfound freedom. The assumption that the new freedom for independent study and meditation of the Bible would bring freedom worked for some time, but not as long as they expected. The reason was spiritual stupidity and blindness.
Freedom alone does not guarantee bliss. To maintain freedom it is necessary to follow the Biblical principles of conduct. However, the spiritual people themselves forgot this. Instead of the Bible as the source of truth they substituted the human wisdom of spiritual people. Thus began the decline. Spiritual people are spiritual, but the wisdom from their own minds need not always be wise.
Many believers argue humanly upon spiritual matters and try to settle issues using spiritual wisdom. This is foolishness and that is the reason why many discussion lead to destruction instead of taking people to truth. Even spiritual people are blind and foolish when the discussion originates purely from their human minds. Thus in all such situations the spiritually enlightened people have to repeatedly ask leading questions to lead others back to the Bible. This becomes even more important when a Christian Apologist, Communicator, or Counselor tries to help people to see and embrace Biblical truth.
3-Because Of Ignorance And Confusion: The correct perception of many real-life issues and subjects might depend upon the understanding of several related subjects.People interested in a subject might not know that their discussion depends upon several other more foundational subjects. Still others might have some idea of things, but there might exist a confusion in their minds about the relative connection of these subjects. The net result would be an inability to deduce the conclusions correctly.Thus when the subject of abortion for family-planning comes up, most people brought up under pure humanist propaganda might discuss the subject only by considering population-explosion as the foundation. On the other hand, a Christian knows that in matters of life and death the Sovereignty of God must also be taken into consideration.
Unless this is done, one can never arrive at an answer proper for a child of God. Ignorance and confusion of basic and foundational truths are common among believers, specially in our generation. Thus to open their eyes to the underlying truths it often becomes necessary to ask leading questions and show them the truths.
4-Because Of Deliberate Deceptions: Not all opponents in a debate indulge in deliberate deceptions and thus the error on the part of most of these people can be attributed to the reasons mentioned above. However, the number of people who resort to deliberate deception in debates has been on the increase, more so in a generation in which there is plenty of freedom to attack Biblical truths.
Opponents of Christianity and opponents of all kinds of self-evident truth, have in the last hundred years devised many methods and strategies to attack truth. Truth hurts those who love error and from there comes their deliberate deception. It is these people who place the greatest hurdles in the path of investigation. They use all the tactics at their disposal to deceive inquirers and oppose Christian Apologists. Mere affirmations on the part of Apologists is not, in most such cases, enough. Rather, Apologists often need to force such truth-twisters to defend themselves (which they will not be able to do).
Only Leading Questions can force truth-twisters and logic-twisters to defend themselves, and only this will force them to grapple with monstrosities of their own making. Only this will enable Christian Apologists to establish themselves forcefully. This is all the more reason why Christian Apologists must master the art of leading erring people to truth.Those who distort truth may, in turn, use it for two purposes and identifying these can often be helpful to understand their motives. These motives can be:
TO FLEE FROM TRUTH: Many people do not like truth and run away from it. It might be because of their rebellion, because truth hurts them, or because of any number of such reasons. They hate at the thought of facing truth and thus they purposely deceive their opponents in a discussion. Leading Questions can help the Apologist to firmly bring these people to face truth.
TO HIDE OR SUPPRESS TRUTH: Many people would like to hide or suppress truth because they know the consequences of the truth becoming known might hurt them seriously. It might hurt their name, fame, position and prestige. They might lose face in front of people who have been respecting them for years together. Thus they might reason that suppressing the truth for as long a period as possible is better than exposure. Whatever the motive of people behind suppressing truth, if it needs to come out in the open, Apologists have to see to it that it comes out. The best method that they have at their disposal to expose the falsehood and establish truth in such cases is to ask leading questions.
Summary
People love numerous things, including ’some’ truth, but not all the ultimate truths. Humankind by nature has a greater love for DARKNESS than for light. They will use all the arsenal at their disposal to dodge the truth. In such cases, the best approach might not be affirming truth. Rather, the falsehood has to be revealed first and then truth has to be affirmed. Asking Leading Questions is one of the best approaches towards this goal.
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