Every seat was filled and people were standing at the back listening to Tanya Walker’s talk at the “student” apologetics training last night at the City Temple on Holborn Viaduct.

Tanya did a great talk on the nature of truth, teaching us how to search for and find the assumptions behind the questions we get asked by skeptics and seekers. She taught us how to spot the internal inconsistencies within the question, and to show the questioner in a gracious way, that they themselves have a “faith”.

After a short break, I hosted a 90 minute Q&A. Probably about 50 different people made some contribution to the training session, as I asked the group how they would answer the top 10 questions asked by non-Christian students in London.

It was great to see the inter-action in the hall as the debate swung to and forth. I was facilitator, I had 18 pages of notes as to how I would have answered all 10 questions, but I am pleased to say that I only delivered 5 per cent of my notes, as others in the room came up with much better material! It’s amazing what we know! Especially when we pool our resources.

We started off with the origin of the universe, and big bang verses big crunch. We looked at the oscillating universe, and the multiverse theory. We also looked at abiogensis, the origins of life on earth. Surprisingly we didn’t do a lot on evolution. We then asked whether God was immoral and egotistical to demand worship from people. And then we had the biggest section of the evening on homosexuality. There was a lot of wise advice on what to say, and what not to say, when speaking to those who are offended by what the Bible says about homosexuality, and especially when speaking to those who are gay themselves.

We then had two questions on hell, and whether it was an over-the-top punishment for sin. We also talked on whether sin was a real offence or not. We were asked why God created temptation, sin and hell in the first place, and then we ran out of time on questions about pre-destination, Hitler’s suicide and so on.

A huge thank you to Joel Kendall and his team for putting on the event. The lesson learned is that there is a huge appetite for apologetics training within Christ Church. We literally didn’t have enough chairs, so well done everyone!

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