' knock and the door will be opened to you' Luke 11:9

Often I watch TV as Christians debate the existence of God with atheists or agnostics. Its something that I have done myself in the past. But I have learnt that it's almost invariably futile as belief in an unseen God must rest ultimately on faith. In reality trying to prove the truth of Jesus Christ in reasoned debate almost invariably sends people in the opposite direction. Of course there have been some great Christian thinkers that have written books that challenge and enlighten. Thomas Aquinas, C S Lewis , Thomas Merton but I would argue that the door to Christ must already be open or at the very least unlocked for their words to be able to have an effect and that much of what they write requires an intellectual effort that not many people are prepared to make.

Religious belief is by its very nature multi layered and subjective indeed one of the strengths of the anti- religious movement is that their arguments are one dimensional and easy to grasp at a superficial level. ' if there's a God of love why does he allow suffering' ? If you have 30 minutes to make your case invariably Hitchens and Dawkins have an easier time of things.

Believers attempts to justify their faith inevitably become more and more convoluted in stark contrast to the teachings of Jesus which stand out by there directness and simplicity. Should not we' render unto Caesar what is Caesars?' How can we possibly seek to justify or explain the word of God better than God? As Christians the closest we have to direct access to Gods word are the gospels. So isn't the best strategy simply to guide the perplexed or unsure to the word of God itself and ask them to open their hearts reach out to God and leave everything to him? ' When the pupil is ready the teacher appears when I pass all, my children know me'. Our role should be to act as a guide to the door let Christ do the rest. In fact many churches by moving away from this and becoming in effect intermediaries ' you won't be able to understand the Christian faith unless you read my road map' are only creating artificial barriers and are asking people to put their faith it what by its very nature is broken. I read yesterday that Dawkins is moving towards Christ if that's true it's not because of the hours of debate but the wonderful irony that by talking about Christ he unwittingly opened the door to his heart and that which God opens can never be closed.