After you have shared the gospel, your friend might say things like:
     I don't agree that God exists
     I don't agree that we can know about God
     I don't agree that we can have a relationship with God
     "My God" would not punish people"
     My God" would not allow unjust things to happen

Here are some guidelines for talking about the existence of God.  There is less pressure on you when you realize that it is the gospel that will draw someone to become a believer in God, not the success of your arguing ability.  Even if the person rejects your arguments, you yourself are a living, walking example of someone who believes that God exists.  As you talk about what God has done in your life, you are showing your friend that God is a genuine possibility.  In particular, your experience that God forgives your faults and frees you from regret shows God’s power.

 John 1:16 says “No one has seen God at any time, but the only Son, who is from the bosom of the Father, has made him known.”  This encourages us that we can talk about Jesus even to an atheist, because in getting to know Jesus, the atheist will come to know God.

 THE CLASSICAL REASONS.  These approaches were used by early Greek philosophers.

THE FIRST CAUSE.  Everything must have a cause, so there had to be something that caused all the rest.  We call that God.

 THE UNMOVED MOVER.  Nothing can move unless something else sets it in motion.  Something had to set the very first thing in motion. We call that God.

SOCIOLOGICAL REASONS

UNIVERSAL RECOGNITION.  People all around the world in many different cultures recognize that there must be a God

UNIVERSAL ETHICS.  People around the world have a sense of right and wrong.  There must be a source for this, and an ultimate standard for it.  Whenever you say that something is unjust, you must be comparing it with some standard.  The fact that all people around the world have a sense that some things are just and others are unjust indicates a God who has provided this standard.

INNER FEELINGS

CRAVING FOR LOVE.  Since we all need love, there must be an ultimate source of love that gave us this craving and who alone can fill it.  That’s why it is significant that when the Bible describes God, it stresses that God is love.

CRAVING FOR JUSTICE.  Since the evil of this world cries out for justice, there must be someone who will punish evil and set things straight.  Realizing that God will deal justly by punishing evil provides a rationale for peoples’ reluctance to accept a God who would punish.  Who would not want evil to be punished?

BRAIN WIRED.  Time magazine among others has publicized research that our brain is wired to have religious experience.

GOD AND SCIENCE. Your friend may be wondering whether science has disproved God. Suggestions.

Talking about God is less daunting if you assume that most people already have something that is functioning as a “god” for them; your goal is to show how the God of the Bible can fill those functions.  Their “god” is that to which they owe their ultimate allegiance, that to which they turn when all else fails. 

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