Hello Johnny, thanks for taking the time to respond.

You said:

“Quite a stretch of reasoning to expect of a young slave.”

My friend, you’d be amazed how clever the young are. None of this reasoning is complex. A bright child could work their way through it; an average teenager could. All it takes is the prompt — something to encourage them to think along these lines. And the horrors of slavery is prompt enough.

You said:

“It is perfectly OK when asked the tough questions about salvation to answer, “I don’t know.”

It’s also perfectly okay to give the clear answers that we DO have. We don’t have to pretend not to know — especially when we’ve been given exactly the answers we need.

You said:

“Speculation like this isn’t satisfactory to a sincere skeptical seeker.”

My friend, I’ve been writing this kind of material for 15 years. I’ve heard personally from many skeptics who have indeed appreciated it and found it helpful in their seeking.

It should also be stated that it is NOT speculation. Speculation is when you don’t have the necessary information and you’re guessing to fill in gaps.

This is deduction — taking the clear evidence we have and making reasonable conclusions.

Speculation is guessing without evidence.

Deduction is reasoning from evidence.

We’re doing the latter.

You said:

“Better to be humble and admit you don’t have an answer for them.”

When we do have an answer, I’m not going to pretend that we don’t.

That isn’t humility. That’s folly.