 I'm Angela Madden. I'm here with Tom Hollis and we have a wonderful program today. Well, we do. I don't know if Angela, if you've ever had questions, but I bet somebody out there has had people ask you questions about your faith and you just couldn't answer them and it gets to be a little intimidating, a little frustrating. We're like, oh Lord, what do I do? I'm not a theologian. Well, Shay Hooterman from gotanswers.org is going to be with us and he's going to show us how to answer some of those questions. And also he's going to help us understand our own faith better. Angela, this is a thing. I mean, we can kind of ignore the questions because we've experienced the Lord and we were getting to know him and it's wonderful. We know salvation has happened to us. And then somebody says, well, what about this? Who are the Nephilim? Who was, you know, where did Seth's wife come from? I mean, all this, you know, those kind of questions and it can throw us a little off our tracks a little bit. It can't and those questions, getting answers to those questions helps to build our faith and it brings others into the faith. You know, also today on our program, you're going to get to discover some answers to those questions that we just talked about and some questions that you may have about God and the Bible. We're also going to learn how to speak to others about our faith and share a word of encouragement and pray for your needs at the end of the program. You know, Tom, you were talking about the questions that people ask and some of these can really stump us in our faith. But I believe, like you said, as we begin to interview and have this conversation that when we see the light shine on these dark spaces, it really can illuminate our path to Christ. Well, these kind of questions are good because we need to know what we believe. We need to be able to give an answer for the hope that's within us. And so there's some really strong things we're going to go into here that are very simple in some cases or very deep and profound in other cases, but there are questions we need to have at least an answer with, you know, and again, not all of us, everybody's going to have their degree or in theology or whatever, but we can answer some basic questions about our faith. Well, our next guest, he's the founder and CEO of God Questions Ministries. This is an important ministry, everyone, and for more than two decades, he's been accountable for the content and every answer on the website, and this is their website, GodQuestions.org. You should write that down. Shay Haldeman also has a new book out called The 100 Most Asked Questions About God in the Bible, and he joins us now to help shed a light on some of these most sought out questions. Shay, welcome to Hope Today. Tom, Angela, thank you for having me. It's my pleasure to be here. Well, let me ask you, Shay, how did you, well, maybe tell us your story. How did you come to Christ and how did you get involved in finding such an important website? So yeah, I came to faith in Christ in my late teens. My uncle, who was a pastor, came and stayed with us for a while and shared the gospel with me. I remember asking him tons of questions. I had some Christian background and went to church some as a child, but ultimately he answered the most important question for me, how I could trust in Jesus Christ as my savior, how I could be promised an eternal home in heaven, how could I have my sins forgiven? And from there, thankfully, a local youth pastor started to disciple me and he very quickly started pointing me to, Shay, I really think God is calling you into some sort of full-time ministry. Well, as more I got into it, the more I studied, eventually landed in Bible college and was like, hmm, none of the quote-unquote traditional forms of ministry seem like a good fit for me. I mean, I'm a much better writer than public speaker. I have no musical talent whatsoever. I joke that I don't like teenagers. So that right there eliminates the vast majority of traditional ministry positions in the church. So after I graduated from Bible college and I got my master's degree in theology, my wife, Melissa and I were just praying like, Lord, what are you calling us to? What would be the perfect ministry fit for me? And this was late 2001, early 2002. Internet was really just starting to be something that most people had in their homes. High-speed internet was becoming available so you could do something worthwhile online without having to wait half an hour for a picture to download. You guys remember that was days too. But we just launched GotQuestions.org in February of 2002, thinking, oh, this'll be a cool little hobby that we can do until God calls us to whatever real ministry he has planned. Well, the website has exploded. There's such a huge need for it. And so the last 22 years is our story of watching God take what we thought would be a hobby and just exploding it into one of the most frequently visited Christian websites in the world. And I praise God every day that he's called me to this and I love answering people's questions. It's truly rewarding to see the impact to see how many people are reached each month just to give you an idea, last month, we had over 16 million visitors to the website just in one month. So lots of people out there with questions. Yeah, absolutely. My wife and I taught junior church at our church for fourth and fifth graders for years. And I always tried to answer their questions because I've heard stories. I had professors in college that said, I asked a question in Sunday School class and they told me, well, you just need to believe it because it's in the Bible and they didn't have an answer. And that actually turned them off at a young age to Christianity because, and I heard that more than once. And so what is the value of us having answers? Again, not everybody's gonna have, as you do, have a master's in theology. So what is the value of all of us being able to answer questions? Tom, I've heard that same story multiple times before where someone asked their Sunday School teacher or their pastor a question when they were young and were kind of brushed off and it really turned them away from the faith. Jesus didn't shy away from questions. And you quoted it earlier, the first Peter 315, we're supposed to be always ready to give an answer to anyone asked for the reason, the hope that we have. So a lot of people are scared of answering questions or scared they might give a wrong answer or incorrect or incomplete answer. But just know that if someone comes up and asks you, good answer is, I don't know, but I'll find out for you. And then actually do some research and then come back and then give the person the answer. That is a way better answer to give than you just need to trust, you need to believe. Because when questions like that are brushed off, it really leaves a bad taste in your mouth. It causes you to, well, maybe they, if this person doesn't actually know this answer, maybe they're not really all that serious about their faith or maybe God's word because they actually have the answers to the questions that I'm wondering about that I would like to apply in my life. So I think we'd always need to be ready to give answers. And sometimes that requires to say, look, I don't know, but I'll get back to you. Yeah, I love that. I always remember that God's not insecure about questions. It's all right, come let us reason together, right? You know, says the Lord. So he's not insecure about our questions and willing to answer them. Not always to our satisfaction probably, but to our faith walk, he gives us the answer. But let me, we're gonna dive into some of these questions here. What have you seen? Let me ask you first this. What is like the main question you see today? Maybe something that you didn't see 20 years ago that you're seeing more and more now. What is a big question that seems to be on the minds of people today? That's a great question. And there's a verse that says that no temptation is taking you, what said was common demand. And I would paraphrase that a little bit and say, no question is overtaking you. That's not common. I mean, for the most part, for our 20 years through the questions have remained the same. And this book is a collection of 100 most asked questions of all time in ministry. But more recently, just in the past several years, I've seen a lot more questions that are either hostile towards the Christian faith or even like someone who asked that, I've been a Christian my whole life. But in the Nazca question, it's like, wow, do you really don't, you've been a Christian your whole life and you don't know the answer to that question. Something fairly basic or an inability to explain. So Bible knowledge is definitely decreasing. The culture around us is becoming less and less Christian. So 50 years ago, people, even if they weren't believers, at least had somewhat of a Christian worldview. And now it's the difference between Christians that are dedicated and walking with Christ and the world is becoming a very, very stark contrast. So examples of why should I trust the Bible? What does the Bible say about this issue or that issue or why shouldn't I do this or that? Questions like that are more common. It's like, wow, this is something that the Bible is very, very clear about and teaches on throughout and it's distressing to hear Christians who don't know the answers to some of these questions. Yeah, very much so. You know, one of the things I've noticed that whereas even in my day and definitely a generation before me, there would have been a lot of people brought up in the church where they're not so much now. And so there's maybe not a foundation of learning and teaching there about the basics. I just had this come up a little while ago, someone that I knew posted something saying, well, Jesus isn't God. You know, we asked Jesus into our life, but Jesus isn't God. So let's go there right away. How about the nature of God and the Trinity? How are we supposed to understand that? You know, that's interesting. Yes, the very first question we received is how do you explain the Trinity to an unbeliever? So Trinity has been an issue for the ministry throughout. Lots of people question about it. Even long-term believers, Trinity is one of those things. It's fairly simple and what the Bible teaches in terms of there's one God, but the Father's God and Jesus, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit's God. But that important is simple, but okay, how can there be one God, but also three persons who are also God? So how does that work out? So obviously, literally that leads to a lot of people asking questions. So our goals is here's what the Bible says. We may not be able to perfectly understand it, but the Bible is very clear. There's many, many scriptures to talk about, the Father God and throughout the New Testament, many, many scriptures that say that Jesus, the Son, our savior is God in the flesh and the Holy Spirit resented to be God too. So rather than, I don't understand it, therefore it can't be true. Recognizing that there are certain aspects of the Christian faiths or an external and infinite God that we may not be able to perfectly understand, but our ability to trust something and believe something shouldn't be dependent on our ability to fully or perfectly understand it. I love that you say that because I think if we could actually understand all of these questions and all of the little idiosyncrasies of them, we would be able to say we understand God, which is limitless and infinite. You know, what kind of God would that be to worship? My question for you, Shaye, is how do you all take these questions you get? Like if you get a new question today, what does your process look like for answering that question and how quickly does that happen? Thank you, Angela. So on our website, GotQuestions.org, there is the ability for people to actually submit a personal question to us. On the website itself, there are over 9,000 frequently asked questions. And so you would think by now every question someone can answer would be there. And to an extent, at least parts of the questions, but people have a personal issue they're struggling with that it's not fully covered or every once in a while, a entirely new question that sort of pops up. So if someone submits a question to us, it goes into our database and then one of our employees will actually review the question, either answer it, use an article on the website to partially answer it, or we can submit it to our team of over 200 volunteers who help us answer all the questions that we receive. So then that writer will research the question, answer it, send it back to us. And then one of our employees will then review and approve the answer and then it's sent out to the person who asked it. So that process, our goal is to get an answer back within 48 hours. And that's generally our average. Sometimes it can be faster, sometimes it takes a little longer, but people who visit the website, like I said over 16 million last month, vast majority of people are finding an answer live and instantly on the website, but we also have a submission process where people can do questions to us. That is so good. I mean, just to think of the word of God that's going out to all these people, but let me ask you another one of the questions I think that comes up. What do we do with the Old Testament as Christians? You know, are we required to follow the rules of the Old Testament? And if we're not required to follow some of the rules, how do we tell which ones we're supposed to follow and which ones we're not as we walk through our Christian life? That is a great question. And again, a very, very common one. Briefly, I know we don't have a ton of time, but entire books have been written on this issue. But briefly I would say there's numerous verses in the New Testament that describes Jesus' death and resurrection fulfilling the Old Testament. The Old Testament law there is, of course, the 10 commandments that most people are familiar with, but there's actually over 600 different commands. So like you asked, do we have to obey these commands or not? When the Bible talks about Jesus filling the law, it then also describes about the law of Christ, which is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love your neighbors yourself. And Jesus himself says, you obey these two, you have fulfilled the whole law. So we are not under the Old Testament law. We're not under all those commands which involved a lot of sacrificial rules and rituals and all those things. We are under that law of Christ, which many of the Old Testament commands would fit under. For example, if you're loving God, you're not going to be worshiping other gods or worshiping idols or taking the Lord's name in vain. If you're loving your neighbor yourself, you're not gonna be committing murder, you're not gonna be stealing, you're not gonna be committing adultery, et cetera. But those are the law of Christ. Those are the New Covenant law, not the Old Testament law. So it's worthy of a lot deeper explanation, but I don't believe we are under any of the Old Testament laws. I believe we're under the law of Christ, but any of the Old Testament laws then do also fit under the law of Christ. I would imagine answering questions like that and so many others that you address in your book have also opened people up to the greater gospel message. Have you had those who've shared that coming to your website has actually led them into relationship with Jesus? And if so, would you share with us one of your favorite? Oh, wow. So yes, I remember it was about a year after we launched the website, someone came to us and actually submitted the question, how can I know for sure I'd go to heaven when I die? I remember like calling out to my wife who was sitting in the other room was like, Melissa, can someone get saved on the internet? We'd really viewed GotQuestions.org as a discipleship ministry. We didn't really view it as evangelism, but since then, 30,000s upon thousands of people have asked us questions directly related to the gospel. And we have over 50 articles on the website just dedicated to presenting the gospel based on a different way of asking the question. So it's how can I know for sure? It's what does it mean to trust in Christ as your personal savior? Is there life after death? How can I receive forgiveness from God? All these questions present the same gospel, but just using a different way of answering the question. And yes, every month we receive, I think it was last month, a little over 10,000 people made professions of faith in Christ through GotQuestions.org. How many of those are genuine first-time decisions to trust in Christ? We don't know. This is just what people are professing to us, but we've had numerous emails from people and you asked me to describe one. Someone submitted the question to us, do pets go to heaven? And we responded with a biblical and caring answer. This person wrote back and said, thank you. I submitted this question to several ministries. You were the only ones who responded. And because you answered this question, I just had a beloved cat pass away and I was devastated by it. Because you took the time to answer my question, I came back to your website. I read this article about trusting in Jesus and I've decided to receive Christ as my savior. Through answering a question, that ultimately in the grand scheme of eternity, do pets go to heaven? It's not all that important. But for this person, it was extremely important that person came back and trusted in Christ as their savior. Had the ultimate question answered, yes. We seek to treat every question seriously. And the questions related to the gospel are always by far our favorite ones to answer. Well, that is a great story. I love that. So in the last few minutes that we have here, why don't you solve free will and predestination for us? I mean, it's only been argued about for 500 years, even longer than that. But seriously, what I like about your book is you're very fair-minded about various streams of thought and doctrine in Christianity. How do you handle something like that? Maybe that question in particular. It's an interesting question. So Tom, if I were to come to you, say we met for coffee and I said, Tom, what do you think about this issue? I'm not asking you to, Tom, give me the 10 different interpretations of this Bursar passenger issue and then I'll make up my own mind. No, I'd be asking Tom, what is the answer that you think is best? And so that's generally our approach on got questions. We're not seeking to confuse people. Here's the 15 interpretations you make up your own mind. It's like, no, people often say, here are the different news that we think are biblically plausible. And then here's the one we prefer and why. But on other issues, we're just like, no, we're just gonna give them the answer that we think is correct, but do it in a spirit of grace. Not make it seem like this is the only way to possibly view this, but we don't wanna cause confusion. We want people to understand God's word. We want them to dig it for themselves. But also, here's the answer we think is correct. Predestination free will, obviously, as you said, hugely controversial has been almost the entire history of the Christian faith. We believe God is ultimately sovereign. The God, the predestination and election is taught in scripture. The Bible also calls on believers to, of people to trust in Christ, to submit themselves to the faith. Both are true. How God can be sovereign and elect people to salvation. And we also were responsible for believing. How does that work with free will? We believe both are true. How the two come together. We don't believe there's a perfect explanation. There's some value in Calvinism. We see why some people believe our many isn't the other side and everything in between. Ultimately, our responsibility is to trust in Christ and leave the predestination, the election up to God. I mean, he can handle that side of the equation. Our responsibility is to believe. Oh, thank you. I'm so glad for God that can handle that side of the equation. Amen to that. Shaye Haldeman, thank you so much. The book is called The 100 Most Asked Questions About God and the Bible. I highly recommend this guys. It is a pretty brief, but very also depth, the in depth answers to so many questions. And I highly recommend gotquestions.org to everyone. Shaye, thank you so much for being with us today. Tom, Angela, thank you for having me. Well, we're gonna take a quick break. And when we come back, we're gonna be sharing with you and praying for you. God is calling you to do something significant in the earth for him, regardless of your age, skill set, or perceived limitations. What's holding you back? When you give to support Cornerstone Television this month, let us bless you with Rick Renner's life-transforming book, Chosen by God. Every page will help you overcome your limited thinking and follow God's plan for your life. Rest assured, God has a plan, and he will thoroughly prepare you to fulfill it if you'll say yes with all your heart. This book will thrill you with the possibilities that await because you are chosen by God. Request your copy when you give by calling 888-665-4483, or donate online at ctvn.org slash donate. Thank you for helping us spread the gospel through life-changing programming like Rick Renner. Hope today, hard questions and more. To keep your favorite programs coming and receive Chosen by God, donate today. I hope you enjoyed that discussion with Shay Haldeman from GodQuestions.org. Again, I highly recommend their website. It's a wonderful resource for so many biblical questions and questions of just living the Christian life. But one thing, Angela, I think is so important to remember is, and I'm sure Shay would agree with this, when we learn these answers or understand these answers, we're not loading up so we can win arguments with people. We're not here to say, oh, go learn this stuff. And when your uncle says, well, what about this? You can just boom, boom, boom. No, we're not doing that, okay? Because ultimately it is love that draws people. Now questions are important too, and answers are important, and the Bible's important. All those are super important, of course, but the attitude to which you share to someone, there are times when you just don't have an answer. And it's okay to say, I don't have an answer. I don't know, I don't know. But I do know this, that God loves you and God cares about you. And sometimes it's hard to maintain our composure when we're being attacked or directly questioned. And when we haven't really studied these things. So this is a great resource, but always remember that love aspect. I love that you bring that up, Tom, because I do think a lot of times when we hear questions and we're like, okay, we need to be armed with an answer. We've got to have an answer. We think that we've got to be, like he said, exegeting scriptures and giving them the theological response. But what Shay noted in his response was, every question they get, they answer with care. And take it very seriously, and don't brush it aside and just have faith, but actually take the time to say, hey, if I don't know the answer, I'm going to research it. I'm going to look for you. I'm going to talk to my pastor and I'll get back to you. Those moments, Tom, I think are truly the guide rails that lead us to faith in Christ. You know, if I didn't have major questions answered for me, I wouldn't have turned to Jesus. Right, right. Well, that's the thing. And with love. And again, my story of that professor in college is it kind of turned away from the faith because part of it was because he was brushed off by a Sunday school teacher. Now I understand you're teaching a class. You want to keep things going. I've been there, believe me. But with care, with love, try to answer questions, especially for children, but really for everybody. But Angela, I'm thinking maybe we could just pray for people, maybe you could lead us in prayer for those that they're probably thinking of someone that is on their heart, that they need to present the gospel in a way that can draw them. Could you pray for them? Yes, I would love to. So Father, we thank you so much that you have given us your Holy Spirit, that you have called us to be your shining light in the world of darkness. Right now, Father, we pray for every person who is prompted even now in their heart and their spirit by that loved one who's not saved or that friend or coworker who has big questions or maybe isn't even asking the question but needs to know Jesus. We ask right now for our brother, for our sister who has that burden in our heart that you would strengthen them, embolden them and give them a grace to give answers. We thank you that Lord, your word promises us that you will give us the words to speak in the hour before. So we thank you that it's not dependent on us and hinging on our knowledge, but on you, the one who is the spirit of truth. Lord, encourage, uplift and strengthen your sons and your daughters today to give answers for their faith. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Tom, I think one of the things you said is basically Galatians 5, right? Is the fruit of the spirit? And let that always be what speaks first for you. Be the living epistle that gives an answer. Well, I think that's really, that way we reflect. Paul said, not alarmed by their questions, that we shouldn't be put off by that. People have questions. Sometimes they're quite sincere, other times they're just wanting to argue. But even those people, even the ones that just wanna argue, underneath that question is a need. Underneath that question is a hurt. And when God begins to show you the key, pray for that. Pray and say, Lord, what is the key for this person? What is the key that's gonna unlock their heart? They still have to make a decision to follow Christ, but man, when you can get that key and that heart unlocked and those hurts kinda pulled away into the, and you get into the heart of the matter, that's when Christ can make a difference in really pouring His love in there. So be that conduit today. Be that conduit with biblical answers, but most of all with Christian love, loving that person. Have a great day in Him today. On tomorrow's Hope Today, learn how you can share about the great commission with your kids. Author Meredith Cook encourages you on how to share the gospel with your children in both a fun and interactive way. That's tomorrow on Hope Today. Cornerstone Television wishes to thank all our faithful viewers, whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible.