By Mark Chatfield
Somehow, it is never easy to ask or answer a question during a large auditorium class. Maybe it is the environment and associated feeling of smallness in a large space. Maybe it is the fear of speaking out where a hundred people are listening. However, in Richard Bartholomew’s auditorium class on Revelation, one brave sister asked a question that stumped everyone at the time.
“How do you handle the situation when someone responds to your efforts to teach the truth by saying, ‘That’s just your opinion?’”
It turns out that at least one major religious denomination teaches its followers to respond to Christians with just those words. They know that it is a thought-ending phrase. It is a way to stymie any conversation by suggesting that fact or truth does not really exist, there is only opinion. If there is only opinion, then mine is as good as yours.
So let’s consider how we can handle this statement, “That’s just your opinion.”
Communication professionals say that folks who use this type of response are trying to divert the focus from the subject under study or review. They say that it may work to ask the person about their own opinion. However, it seems to me that a discussion of two individual’s personal opinions may be interesting, but it has little potential of convincing anyone of a Bible truth.
What Christians always need to do is to rely on Bible terms. The words of Elihu in Job 32 contain the only use of the word, “opinion.” My opinion may be worthless. Your opinion may be worthless. Rather than talking about worthless things, let’s get to the point. Is the Bible our source for truth or not? Can we accept that all the words in the Bible concerning a subject give us the truth we need to know God’s will on that subject? If so, then let’s see what the Bible plainly says and leave our personal opinions out of the discussion. Avoid argument by suggesting that no person’s opinion is of particular value.
Here is one way to handle someone who is using the “your opinion” tactic:
“I believe that the Bible teaches that Christians are to be baptized.”
“That’s
just your opinion.”
“My opinion doesn’t matter much, does it? Let’s see what the Bible says in Acts 2:38 and
some other places.”
By doing this, you can focus the discussion in a loving way by working toward a study of scripture. There is real value in Bible teachings and we all need to know what the Bible says about a particular subject.