The Big Questions
Submitted by Wayne on Fri, 2008-06-27 09:17.
Doctrine
Every believer should know how to address common questions and charges given by seekers and scoffers. Failure to handle these basics can really hurt a believer's witness and even "inoculate" a seeker against the faith. Don't be a liability for Christ; be prepared to provide reasons for your faith.
In no particular order:
- What is the meaning of life? or, What's my purpose?
Fear God and keep His commandments.
- Why would a good God create evil? or, Why does God let bad things happen to good people?
God didn't create evil. We do. Given free will, we prefer to do evil, causing suffering in others.
- I'm a good person. Isn't that enough?
No, you're not; and no, it's not. God requires perfection, yet all fall short. Your only hope is substituting Jesus' perfection for your imperfection.
- If the earth is young as Genesis says, what about distant starlight?
Naturalists have a similar light travel-time problem. In contrast, creationists have viable theories to explain theirs.
- Can you prove the resurrection actually happened?
Yes. Read the proof by Simon Greenleaf, a principle founder of Harvard Law School.
- Will Christianity help my life be better?
Life may be harder, but you'll have good counsel to help you cope.
- I believe in naturalism; there's no such thing as the supernatural, divine or otherwise.
Naturalism is every bit an a priori faith as any religion.
- Christians are stupid sheep. or, I'm too smart to be Christian.
Only the truly stupid fail to find ample evidence supporting Christianity's truth.
- The Bible contradicts itself frequently.
No, it doesn't. The unchanging God has no reason to contradict Himself.
- Isn't religion just a crutch? or, I'm not religious.
Christianity is not a "religion", per se, but truth itself.
- Why aren't all religions just different paths to the same end?
All those in conflict with the truth are wrong.
- How do you hear God, and how can you be sure?
Know the Lord, and you'll recognize His voice.
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Go for it
Submitted by Wayne on Fri, 2008-06-27 10:18.
I won't hold off answering any myself nor keep others from answering whichever ones they'd like, but go ahead and answer what and when you can.
Anybody else?
Submitted by Wayne on Mon, 2008-06-30 08:31.
Is anyone else going to attempt to answer one or two of these questions? Or is there no one else spiritually mature enough to address these fundamental charges commonly made by unbelievers?
Not done
Submitted by Dave on Mon, 2008-06-30 08:45.
Time was more scarce this weekend than expected (I actually did some chores at home, what were the odds?), but I have partial answers to a number of other questions, and I am trying to polish them up.
I should acknowledge that not having the answers in my back pocket is a failure of sorts. Given that, going through the exercise of developing answers is a valuable and necessary exercise toward that goal. I have found myself in the position of having to answer for my faith before, and I don't like the feeling when I don't have a good answer.
If any of my fellow believers find these questions difficult, if you are not certain how you would answer, then do your homework! Peter wrote, "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear". (1 Peter 3:15) To fail to obey this command from the Word of God is sinful disobedience! I have been disobedient, but I repent of that. Next time someone asks me, I want to be ready.
Short and to the point
Submitted by Wayne on Mon, 2008-06-30 09:12.
By the way, the answers need not be long. And frankly, using Scriptures to address unbelievers' objections is not a very helpful tactic in most cases. (They don't tend to put much stock in it.) Consider the value of being brief and logical. In the context of interrogation, you don't need to build and prove a case (that may come later). You just need to answer directly the big questions.
Why would a good God create evil?
Submitted by Dave on Sat, 2008-06-28 17:52.
Question:
Why would a good God create evil? or, Why does God let bad things happen to good people?
Answer:
God did not create evil. At most, He created the possibility of evil. He did this because He created man with free will. God did not want automata, but children who loved Him. To love, one must have the ability to choose love. Having this ability implies the opposite -- that one may choose not to love. This is what leaves open the possibility of evil. Man did not have to bring evil into God's creation, but he chose to disobey and so opened the door. Evil was not created by God; it resulted from man's abuse of God's perfect creation.
As for allowing bad things to happen to "good" people, there are a number of ways to look at this question. One the one hand, it can truly be said that there are no "good" people, but that involves the answer to another one of the "big questions," so I will not address it here. Another perspective involves free will, and it leads back to the point made in the previous paragraph. God permits us to have free will so that when we choose to follow Him, it is a meaningful choice. This means God must allow the possibility that we will choose to reject Him, thereby inevitably hurting ourselves and others.
Yet another answer can be found in Scriptures:
Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' Jesus answered, 'Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.'" (John 9:1-3)
God allows bad things to happen to people so that He can demonstrate His power and His will by healing and overcoming them. In the end, God will overcome evil itself and put right His creation. He gives us a taste of this through healings and other miracles even today.
One might ask about those people who are not healed, but the answer to that question can be found in Scripture as well. The following passage from Luke, chapter 4, describes Yeshua's experience in his home town of Nazareth:
But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleaned except Naaman the Syrian. (Luke 4:25-27)
Yeshua's point is summed up more succinctly thus: "Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief." (Matthew 13:58) The Lord wants to heal everyone, save everyone. The only obstacle to His doing this is our stubborn lack of trust in Him!
Of course, the ultimate example of God overcoming evil in the world is seen in Yeshua's death and resurrection. Yeshua lived a perfect, sinless life and yet was subject to humiliation, torture, and death. Could there be a more evil act? This, at least, is truly an example of bad things happening to a good person. And yet God turned this evil act completely around. Through Yeshua's death and resurrection, death itself was conquered. God provided His children with a path to redemption. Satan's attempt at victory turned out to be his defeat. In the end, bad things happen to good people so that God can show His sovereignty over evil and demonstrate the ultimate triumph of goodness, mercy, and love.
Fair answers
Submitted by Wayne on Mon, 2008-06-30 08:30.
Succinctly, we chose evil--God didn't--and bad things happen to good [sic] people because we corrupted this world with evil.
Asking this question is a common tactic used to avoid personal responsibility for evil by trying to shift blame to the Creator. He did not create evil. He only allowed choice. We steadfastly choose to do evil.
There are times when bad things happen as a matter of natural consequence. This may be reasonably seen as "punishment" for one's sins. There are also times, as Dave points out, that bad things happen so that God may be better glorified. There are also times when bad things happen just because we live in a sinful world and we're sinful creatures.
As for "good" people, there's no such thing--again, as Dave indicates--other than Jesus Himself. All have sinned.
Good reference
Submitted by Dave on Mon, 2008-06-30 09:08.
For a rather more complete answer to this question, I highly recommend The Problem of Pain by C. S. Lewis. This particular "big question" is the topic of Lewis' book, and he does a much better job of answering it than I possibly could.
I'm a good person. Isn't that enough?
Submitted by Charla on Tue, 2008-07-01 01:18.
Here is my feeble attempt....
NO. Jesus said that "NO ONE will come to the Father except by me." Being good, or doing good works, does not get you into the Kingdom. Only believing in Jesus Christ and repenting of your sin will work.
1) Just because you think you are a good person does not guarantee you a ticket to heaven. Your thoughts about yourself are biased to say the least. By what measure do you judge yourself? Against your family members? Your neighbors? Those gang-looking guys on the street corner handing out leaflets? (Didn't know they were handing out Bible tracts, did ya?)
How would others judge you? Would they say that you are a good person? Maybe they'd disagree with you. But it really doesn't matter because THEY ARE NOT GOD. They do not decide who gets in heaven and who doesn't. And guess what? You don't get to decide for yourself, either.
Unless you judge yourself against the Word of God, then your judgment is insufficient.
2) You are NOT perfect. No human is. But, GOD IS PERFECT. And because HE is perfect, He cannot be in fellowship/relationship with someone who is not. His perfected being would kill any speck of imperfection in another. Only by His grace did He send someone to atone for our imperfection, and that was Jesus. By accepting what Jesus did for us, out of God's love for us, then we are made spiritually perfect. Then, and only then, can we become sanctified and justified to be in the presence of God.
3) God's grace - Him making us spiritually perfect thru Jesus - is not earned by what we do. It is a free gift. It's a gift He gives us because He loves us so much and wants us to be with Him. There is nothing we could do, nor enough good works, that would ever be enough to "earn" His love. He loves us as our heavenly Father, and as a father, He requires only that we believe in Him and love Him back.
As a parent to children myself, I can understand this, and maybe you could too. You wouldn't require your children to do x number of chores per day, or to be excellent and perfect in all of their activities, in order for them to earn your love. You love them because they are YOURS. They came FROM you. And so it is with God. You came from God and He loves you so much that it doesn't matter if you mess up. He's made a way for you to be with Him, and that way, and the only way, is thru Jesus. So don't stress yourself out by trying to earn His love. Just relax and ask for His forgiveness and grace, and ACCEPT HIS LOVE freely as HE FREELY GIVES HIS LOVE TO YOU.
4) What happens when you're not so good? Everyone has an "off" day because after all, as said before, we're not perfect. We're going to screw up. And even though you may be generally good most of the time, frankly sometimes you're not so good. You mentally cuss out the guy who cut you off on the interstate, or you acted with impatience at the new clerk in the grocery checkout, who is still trying to memorize the produce codes. YOU DON'T HAVE AS MUCH GRACE AS GOD DOES.
But hey, you have an out, a get out of jail free card. You have a God who LOVES YOU, NO MATTER WHAT. So you can always lean on Him when you are imperfect, weak, not so good. And He will still take you.
5) What about those people who are not good? Will they get into heaven? Maybe. Maybe not. But God's grace is sufficient for those who, even though they were "bad" all of their lives, if they truly repent and accept Jesus before they die, then they get to live in God's presence forever too. Whether we mere mortals like it or not, God's grace can reach out and grab even the worst individual, if they so choose to accept his invitation before their body quits working.
And thus ends my feeble attempt...
Good job.
Submitted by Wayne on Wed, 2008-07-02 08:46.
Not feeble, but a comprehensive coverage of the basics. Good job.
See my terse summary in the original post.
2 down; 10 to go
Submitted by Wayne on Tue, 2008-07-01 08:07.
Two of the dozen big questions have been fairly thoroughly covered so far. Anybody up for the other ten?
What is the meaning of life? What is my purpose?
Submitted by Dave on Tue, 2008-07-01 08:35.
Your purpose is to thank God for what He did for you. He created you, thereby giving you the life you now have. He created the earth, thereby giving you a wonderful place to live. (Even with man's corrupting influence, it's still a pretty wonderful place.) Most importantly, He sent His Son to make the ultimate sacrifice to rescue you from your stupid, rebellious disobedience.
You might ask, how do I thank Him? Of course, there is nothing we can do to actually repay Him, since He has given us far more than we can ever give Him. The answer is found in a cliche that we hear on TV and in the movies, which goes something like this: "If you'll just do this for me, I'll be your slave!" That is the position we should take. God has done more for us than anyone can imagine, and He expects us to be grateful. All He asks in return is that we trust Him and obey Him.
So, that's your purpose: to trust and obey God in every aspect of your life because of your gratitude for the many gifts He has given you.
Purpose, not motivation
Submitted by Wayne on Wed, 2008-07-02 08:43.
Gratitude may be a motivation, but it's not the purpose of life. Our purpose is to serve the Lord (the "trust and obey" with which you close your comment).
In case you haven't noticed, I've been putting the answers into the original post as they're discussed. The answer to this question comes from Ecclesiastes 12:13, near the end of the book. "Fear", of course, encompasses the emotion itself, plus respect, awe, subservience (ours to Him), etc. Obedience should flow from that awesome fear--thus the second part, "keep His commandments."
We certainly have lots for which to be grateful, and we should indeed be so grateful as to dedicate our lives to our Savior. Even without such gratitude, though-- Even if the Lord did absolutely nothing for us, our purpose would still be to fear God and keep His commandments. Our service to Him is not contingent upon our gratitude or anything He does or doesn't do. We are to serve Him simply because He's God.
Answers
Submitted by Wayne on Wed, 2008-07-02 15:41.
I've taken the liberty and answered them all in the original post. The answers as they're written are intended to directly and succinctly address queries and charges by seekers and scoffers. The links represented by the answers may back up the claims, show Biblical support, further explain, or otherwise offer opportunities for serious seekers to dive more deeply into the answers.
Keep pantyhose on
I'll be happy to take a crack at at least some of them, but not right away. It is difficult for me to devote the effort required to do a proper job while I am at work. We have a weekend coming up, during which I will happily knock out some answers for you. Good enough?