What conclusions about the Bible and God would you draw if you were raised in an atheistic home, struggled through your parents’ divorce, encountered health problems, and were by nature thoroughly skeptical?

Bible Gateway interviewed Mark Clark (@markaclark) about his disarmingly winsome book, The Problem of God: Answering a Skeptic’s Challenges to Christianity (Zondervan, 2017).

What’s the meaning of the title?

Mark Clark: The title is taken from an A.W. Tozer quote (which opens the book), that the problem of God (that he exists, and how we should respond to him) is the deepest and most profound question we must face and deal with as human beings.

The word “problem,” of course, has a double meaning: the first layer being like a math problem—an equation or challenge that needs a solution; the second being that, from a skeptic’s perspective, there are a litany of actual issues and problems that a person must deal with and defend if they’re going to believe in God. And those issues are what the book is about (defending belief of God scientifically, philosophically, historically, psychologically, and practically).

Briefly recount your journey from atheism to skepticism to Christian faith.

Mark Clark: I grew up in a very atheistic home. We had no Bible, no church, no prayer, and God was not part of our life at all. I’ve always been a very rational person, only believing in something if there was enough reason and evidence to believe it. So when I was presented with Christianity in high school—after being a teenager who did drugs, stole from every store and parent I could, partied, and did everything else a teenage kid without Jesus does—I needed to make sure it was based, not on hopeful thinking, but on data, reason, and history.

I started to explore Christianity to see if there were logical and rational reasons to believe, not only in God, but in the Christian faith in particular. Through that journey, I discovered—to my surprise—that Christianity was the truest and most hopeful idea in the marketplace of ideas. That it was more rational to believe in God than not to. That the Bible is the most respected piece of literature of the ancient world. That Christianity points toward answers for evil and suffering, Hell, and why there’s only one way to God. That it’s not anti-sex at all, and that the dark history of the church (burning witches, persecuting scientists, etc.,) was not actually true in the way I previously had assumed.

Why did you write this book?

Mark Clark: First, to equip Christians to be able to defend and present ideas to their skeptical friends and family about why they’re Christians in the first place; and, second, to be settled in their hearts and minds about these ten massive issues—which, if we’re honest, we all continue to wonder about and struggle with as Christians. And, third, to try to convince the most skeptical people among us that Christianity is legitimate and worth exploring.

You’ve organized the book into ten chapters that each focus on a specific argument against Christianity. Unpack your chapter titled “The Problem of the Bible.”

Mark Clark: Many skeptics refuse to believe in God because they say that the Bible is full of errors, is mythology/legend, was made up by people trying to invent a religion, is just ancient mumbo-jumbo, oppressive, etc. My chapter on “The Problem of the Bible” shows why many scholars see the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, not only as not those things, but instead as the most trusted documents in antiquity, in the context of both secular and religious writings. Over and over again, generations who reject the Bible because of claims of archeological contradictions, etc., are proven wrong when more digging is done and discoveries are made. Of all the claims the Bible makes, there’s not one claim that’s ever been proven straight up wrong, which is saying a ton. This chapter explores why the Bible can be trusted, and it explores so-called contradictions and mistakes in the Bible, showing that they’re anything but.

How is suffering a proof that God exists?

Mark Clark: Obviously, it’s not a definitive proof that he exists, but it’s a hint that he does, in that when a skeptic claims there’s too much ‘evil’ or ‘suffering’ in the world for God to exist, he’s in that moment claiming a category called ‘suffering’ or ‘evil.’ If the skeptic’s worldview were true and there were no absolute, transcendent person who gave us a moral law or a sense of right and wrong, then that category of ‘suffering’ or ‘evil’ wouldn’t exist. To say the world is filled with suffering is to compare it to something one thinks is the right way. But where would we get this better way of being idea to compare life to if God didn’t exist? It couldn’t come from nature, because if our brains were programmed simply through evolutionary development, we would never conclude that killing weak babies was wrong or that oppressing weaker people groups is wrong. Those things would be the most natural events to us. But for some reason, because of something beyond nature, we come to different conclusions. The fact that shootings and cancer and genocides bother us at all points to a moral Law Giver who transcends our natural order.

What’s the problem of hypocrisy you write about?

Mark Clark: That the church is filled with hypocrites, hate, bigotry, and judgmental people; that throughout history people in the church have killed and tortured people, gone to war, and persecuted people—which is in direct defiance of what Jesus seemed to be about. That the church in our present time is filled with people who claim to be Christians but who live and think exactly like the world. They say one thing but live totally different lives: sexually, politically, practically, philosophically, morally, etc. In The Problem of God, I admit that this problem is sometimes true; I explore in detail why that is; and I suggest a way through this challenge for both the Christian and the skeptic.

Why do you say a belief in Christianity is “not all that comforting because it’s a belief with consequences”?

Mark Clark: Because Christianity isn’t just about believing some doctrinal ideas in a separate sphere from real life, and it’s not the ‘easy way’ as some see it. It has a cost to it. If you’re going to follow Jesus there will be sacrifices of time, money, ideas; stuff one thinks they want to do because it gives short term benefit, etc. Ask a high school student, or a business person trying to play it straight, whether following Jesus is the easy way.

What’s a favorite Bible passage of yours and why?

Mark Clark: Romans 3:21-29, because it’s just so rich with gospel theology and the story of the Bible.

John 4 as Jesus talks about the result of a life with him being that we become satisfied in a way the world can never satisfy us. I think that message is one of the most important things our world can hear.

What are your thoughts about Bible Gateway and the Bible Gateway App?

Mark Clark: I think it’s amazing. I use it often. Beyond any ideas I write about, or any arguments that we Christians create to help convince people, the Bible is still the most powerful thing to confront skepticism and to convince us that Christianity is true. I say this as someone who had exactly that happen. I spent two years just reading the Bible by myself before ever going to a church, and I experienced God in that act in a personal and powerful way. To have an app like yours that brings what Augustine called “the face of God for now” to the world: there’s no better gift. Thank you for all you guys do.

Bio: Mark Clark is the founding pastor of Village Church in Vancouver, Canada. Starting in 2010 out of a school gym, it is now one of the fastest growing multi-site churches in North America. Mark combines frank and challenging biblical preaching with real-world applications and apologetics to speak to Christians and skeptics, confronting questions, doubts, and assumptions about Christianity.

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