| Home | Our Hope | |
| Bible Study |
|
January 22, 2017 |
| Tough Questions | ||
If an instructor is taking you through this lesson, he will provide a code to enter here. Otherwise leave this blank.
Done.
Too many people in the church have been taught what to think and say but not why it is true. In this study we will look at two types of questions: fundamental theology questions and attack questions that require a defense.
God was, and there was nothing else but God. There was no up and down, no left and right, and no forward and backward. Time did not exist.
God was perfect, and there was no flaw in him. God knew what was perfect, and that there was only one perfect. God also knew that there were many possible flaws. Doing what is perfect is good; doing what is flawed is evil.
God was complete. He lacked nothing and was content.
God was glorious, but he knew he could be more glorious. He was able to love others outside of himself, so he decided to create others he could love.
Free will is critically important in God's project to create a people for himself. If he created mankind to always love and obey him and never have a choice then he would have created robots. Their love and obedience would be meaningless because it was not given freely, by their own choice. So God decided to create mankind to have the freedom to choose to obey God or not.
Chosing to disobey God injures God and makes that person intolerable to him. God could have left it at that. Therefore the person would be killed immediately. But God wanted to show another characteristic of himself - his ability to forgive. To do this though, God would need to delay his judgement and there would need to be:
And not to wonder at this, for if he who is Satan resembles an Angel of light, (2 Corinthians 11:14)This is not saying Satan can appear as a bright light like an angel. It is saying Satan can be like an angel of God in some way, for example delivering messages to mankind, though false.
Jesus was crucified, 11 Disciples were executed, for 300 years the first Christians were persecuted, robbed, tortured, beheaded, and made into chew-toys for wild animals. Why would you expect anything else?
Beloved, do not be astonished at the temptations that will come upon you, as if something strange happened to you, for they are for your proving. 13 But rejoice that you share in the sufferings of the Messiah, for in this way also you shall rejoice and be jubilant in the revelation of his glory. (1 Peter 4:12-13)
This world is the way it is because of the sin of Adam and Eve. We live, we struggle, we die.
Bad things happen to everyone
Attack questions are not the kind of question where the questioner wants to hear the answer. They are questions that are intended to cause the listener to question what he believes. To do that, the questions propose situations that the questioner believes contradict the beliefs of the other person. In our case, that's our beliefs about God and what God has said.
Attack questions can be very effective against a person who doesn't know why he believes what he believes.
The idea behind this attack is to show that God is evil because he does not stop the evil and suffering in the world. The trick in the question is that it ignores the cause of the evil and suffering in the world.
The evil and suffering in the world are not God's fault. They also didn't spring up out of nothing. God has given us free will, but people make wrong choices and the consequence of those choices are evil and suffering. The solution to the problem of evil and suffering in the world is for mankind to stop doing evil and causing suffering. God is not evil because he allows people to have free choice.
Often the questioner will continue on with something like, "Well, couldn't God just step in as the person was about to do something evil, and stop it from happening?"
In order for mankind to have free will they must be able to choose to do evil. In order for salvation to be possible it must be possible to do evil. This means evil can and likely will happen to all people.
Mankind is in this situation because of mankind, not because of God.
Every man has an understanding of God built in to his conscience but man finds it very easy to overrule that
"God's perfect love and justice far exceed our own. Whatever He decides will be loving and fair. A friend once told me that many asking this question seek a personal loophole, a way so they won't need to believe in Christ. C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity wrote, "If you are worried about the people outside [of Christianity], the most unreasonable thing you can do is to remain outside yourself." If Christianity is true, the most logical behavior for someone concerned about those without Christ's message would be to trust Christ and go tell them about Him."
There are no contradictions but there are many people who want to believe there are contradictions becauses they need a reason to reject the Bible. Therefore the smallest thing will be enough for them and they aren't interested in studying it in detail.
"Some of these come from ommisions of detail. The Bible isn't like a police report. Omission does not necessarily create contradiction. Luke, for example, writes of two angels at Jesus' tomb after the Resurrection (24:1-9). Matthew mentions "an angel" (28:1-8). Is this a contradiction? If Matthew stated that only one angel was present, the accounts would be dissonant. As it stands, they can be harmonized. Differing accounts aren't necessarily contradictory. Matthew and Luke, for example, differ in their accounts of Jesus' birth. Luke records Joseph and Mary starting in Nazareth, traveling to Bethlehem (Jesus' birthplace), and returning to Nazareth (Luke 1:26-2:40). Matthew starts with Jesus' birth in Bethlehem, relates the family's journey to Egypt to escape King Herod's rage, and recounts their travel to Nazareth after Herod's death (Matt. 1:18-2:23). The Gospels never claim to be exhaustive records. Biographers must be selective. The accounts seem complementary, not contradictory."
Aren't All Religions Basically the Same? Christians are intolerant of other religions. All religions need to adapt to the 21st century
We exercise faith every day. When we get in our cars we believe we will get to our destination safely. The same is true if we take a plane, or even walk. We start jobs, businesses, projects or whatever with the belief that they will succeed.
Believing in an unseen God who sent his son in the form of man that he might die to pay for our sins and be raised to life again is beyond the faith of all people. Therefore, when we are ready God provides the faith.
A person could be sincere in what he believed, but be sincerely wrong.