When Skeptics
Ask

Norman L. Geisler

and

Ronald M. Brooks

© 1990 by Norman L. Geisler and Ronald M. Brooks

Published 1996 by Baker Books
a division of Baker Book House Company
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516–6287

First published 1990 by Victor Books, a division of Scripture Press Publications Inc., Wheaton, Illinois.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Geisler, Norman L.

When skeptics ask/Norman L. Geisler and Ronald M. Brooks

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0–8010-1141–8

1. Apologetics—20th century—Miscellanea. I. Brooks, Ronald M. (Ronald Matthew),

1957- II. Tide.

BT1102.G436 1990

239—dc20 89–29002

Art on page 49 © M. C. Escher Heirs/Cordon Art-Baarn-Holland. Used by permission.

Art on pages 121–22 taken from W. D. Edwards, W. J. Gabel, and F. E. Hosmer, “On the Physical Death of Christ,” Journal of the American Medical Association 255 (21 March 1986): 1454–63. Used by permission of Mayo Foundation.

Chart on page 155 taken from Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix, General Introduction to the Bible (Chicago: Moody Press, 1987), 169. Used by permission.

Chart on page 227 taken from Norman L. Geisler and J. Kerby Anderson, Origin Science: A Proposal for the Creation-Evolution Controversy (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987), 149. Used by permission.

Charts on pages 236 and 238 taken from Norman L. Geisler, The Re-Incarnation Sensation (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 1986). Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977.

Scripture quotations marked niv are from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. niv . Copyright © 1973,1978,1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked kjv are from the Authorized King James Version.

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Contents

Chapter One: The Need To Answer Every Man

Unbelievers Have Good Questions

We Have Good Answers

God Commands Us to Give Them the Answers

But What About …?

Chapter Two: Questions About God

Does God Exist?

What Kind of God Exists?

Some Objections

Chapter Three: Questions About Other Gods

Atheism—What If There Is No God?

Deism—What If God Made the World and Then Left It Alone?

Pantheism—What If the World Is God?

Panentheism—What If the World Is God’s Body?

Finite Godism—What If God Is Not All-Powerful?

Polytheism—What If There Are Many Gods?

Chapter Four: Questions About Evil...