|
Questions? -We don't believe in "blind faith" in relation to finding God and thankfully, we don't have to because God has provided many answers. We all have questions from time to time, and there are real, satisfying answers to many of them through a determined study of the Bible.
Is there is a question that we have not included that bothers you? These answers are not "official dogma" but rather sincere attempts by a pastor or a mature Christian member of our church to address your question according to mainstream biblical interpretation. Here is your chance to draw closer in understanding so go ahead, ask your question.
Questions-
Is this a Spirit-filled church? Has the church been touched by the current revival? Can you give an explanation for both please?
How do we know that Jesus is truly God and not just God's son?
Can't I get to heaven if I just lead a good life?
Can the Bible really be trusted?
Why does God allow bad things to happen to people?
I have seen Christians doing all kinds of terrible things to people. How "Christian" is that?
I know the Bible condemns adultery but where does it say anything about sex between two consenting adults?
goto top
Question- How do we know that Jesus is truly God and not just God's son?
Answer: This is one of the most discussed topics of Christianity. The best treatment is Josh McDowell's book, "More than a Carpenter". The reasoning usually goes something like this: Jesus claimed to be God. The life he led backs up these claims. The options of him being deluded or lying don't fit with the facts. (Crazy people and liars don't live the kind of life he lived.) His claims must, therefore, be true. The idea of "son of" rather than God reveals our meaning of the word "son" rather than a biblical one. Sonship doesn't mean offspring as much as it means common essence and traits. James and John were called "sons of thunder," not because their father was named "thunder" but because they were characterized this way - loud and disruptive. Jesus is fully God, but to make sure we understand something of the Trinity (which is truly beyond our comprehension) he is called God's Son. A reading of Philippians 2 or Colossians 1 is helpful to sort some of this out.
goto top
Question- Can't I get to heaven if I just lead a good life?
Answer- There is a common perception that "leading a good life" will get you into heaven, but as Christians we look to the authority of the Bible to see what it says.
For instance, when Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to Heaven, and they ask the way there he tells them "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." - John 14:6 NIV
Pretty clear isn't it? It doesn't say: "Do good things and you will get there", although it could if that were actually the way.
In another place a rich young man came up to Jesus and asked; "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" and Jesus said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Matthew 19:16 NIV
Even in those days people thought you got into Heaven by doing good but Jesus tells him "There is only One who is good." and that is the problem. We just can't be good enough no matter how much we try. More on this
goto top
Question- Can the Bible really be trusted?
Answer- There are two questions to consider on this issue: "Is what we have now an accurate copy of what was originally written?" and "Did it really happen the way it was written?"
First, "Is what we have now authentic?"
The way way to determine if a book that exists today is likely to be an accurate copy of the original is done in two ways.
First, consider the years from when the book was written to the earliest copy that we have now. Then, see if there are enough copies to cross-check with one another to ascertain any missing, altered or miscopied parts. Then you can look at other writings during the same time period to see what was or was not said about the subject in question to see if your material is upheld or refuted by those outside sources.
In the first case we have parts of the book of John in a library in England dated at 120 AD. The events occurred around 33 AD and the author lived until around 90 AD so it is much closer (40 yrs.) than say Julius Caesar who lived 100 - 44 BC and the earliest copy we have is 900 AD. In fact, the bible far exceeds all these ancient documents on that score. (Homer - 500 yrs., Plato - 1300 yrs., Aristotle - 1400 yrs., Euripedes - 1500 yrs., Tacitus - 1000 yrs., Caesar - 950 yrs.)
Also the number of copies of these other ancient books range from 10 for Julius Caesar to 643 for Homer .There are a staggering 24,000 copies of the Bible in three different languages making it the most validated work by far from that period. In terms of content. By comparison we have; Homer - 643 copies, Plato - 7 copies, Aristotle - 49 copies, Euripedes - 9 copies, Tacitus - 20 copies, Caesar - 10 copies.
Second, did the things that were written actually occur?
The Gospels are mostly eyewitness accounts of events that occurred. To determine if they are truthful we need to weigh the evidence as in a court to make a fair judgment.
For instance, the Gospels are four different accounts of the life of a person named Jesus Christ who claimed He was God; so we have to ask ourselves, were the people who wrote the Gospels in a position to witness the events?.
John, as an early follower of Christ, was there, Matthew, also an apostle, was there, Luke was a physician who wanted to meticulously record the events of those days for history and traveled with the apostles, Mark was a young man in Jerusalem at the time and later traveled with Paul and finally worked with Peter to write his account of the life of Christ. So, the answer is that they could have recorded the life of Christ. Now the question is did they?
The early followers of Jesus had nothing to gain and everything to lose by telling people about Jesus. They were hunted down and killed, and their possessions were taken away. Is it not more likely that what they were saying was true, than that all these people traipsed all over the Mediterranean being imprisoned and executed for a lie? They were not paid but lived off handouts from others like beggars to tell what they had seen. Ask yourself why they would do that if they knew the whole thing was a lie?
According to the Bible when Christ was arrested his followers ran and hid and only came out later after he appeared to them. If he had died and that was the end of him wouldn't they have scattered and gone back to their villages never to be heard from again? But, instead, after Christ appeared to them and proved to them that he had actually risen from the dead, they held great rallies. Not only that but they held them in the temple courtyard right under the noses of the priests who had just put Christ to death. They told thousands of people about Christ during that time.
The crucifixion of Christ was talked about throughout the region as is evident from what Paul said to King Agrippa when he was brought before him for sentencing: "The king is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner." (Acts 26:26)
Now consider; Where are the charges of fraud if the crucifixion did not actually happen? Jesus was referred to in Greek, Roman and Jewish documents outside the Bible (i.e. Josephus, Pliny, The Talmud) but no known document of the time claimed that it was all a hoax. The Jewish high priests tried to bribe the Roman guards into saying that friends had stolen the body, but neither the Jews nor the Romans could hide the fact that there was no body. Here was a person who they mockingly called the "king of the Jews" who was nailed to a cross and died and whose body mysteriously vanished. Try as they might, they could not account for what happened to it.
Earmarks of true history-
When an account is true it has certain earmarks that a fiction does not. For instance, people of the day did not commonly talk like Jesus did. If someone were making up a story to be believable they would not have a person saying things like "Verily, amen amen, truly truly, surely" which were not forms of speech used at the time.
If the Gospels were fabricated by the writers they could have had Christ settling the arguments causing so much strife within the early church. Instead, they say nothing about the things the early followers were arguing about, like the need for circumcision and role of Gentiles in the church. Wouldn’t there have been great temptation to flavor the contents to favor their point of view?
If the stories were contrived why would there be things that might be embarrassing or misunderstood to readers like the anger of Christ, unbelief by his own family, and several other things that are debated to this day?
The indications above do not prove the truth of the Bible but they have the ring of truth to them and make it more likely that what Christ said and did was true than not.
If this seems logical to you, wouldn't it be important to study what is said in the Gospels to see if you subscribe to it, rather than dismiss the whole thing out of hand? Don't you owe yourself that much?
goto top
Question- Why does God allow bad things to happen to people?
Answer- This is a complex question that has given people problems for years. You have only to look at the Bible and turn to the book of Job to see that this is true. We tend to think that if God is all good, and He is all powerful, and He loves man, it just follows that He would not let anything bad happen to us. This, however, does not take into account the whole story. It completely skips the part about God originally providing a perfect world where there was no suffering. He created man so that he was capable of love, but not forced to love, not even the one who created him. It is similar to a father who has a child that he loves dearly and wants to have that child's love in return but only the child can give that love. In other words God gave us the freedom to love Him (or not), otherwise, of what value would our love be?
Now, if we have the freedom to do what we want we can use it to do good things or bad things, right? You may say, "Well He could have made us so we could be a little bad but not too bad so that we could not hurt each other ", But what kind of freedom would that be? You are either free or you are not. You can't be a little bit free just like you can't be a little bit pregnant. That means we can be rude. We can be mean. We can be deceitful. We can be vicious and we can be outright maniacal. It is just a matter of degree. If this is allowed then it just stands to reason that on the other side of the coin there will be those that are mistreated, abused, tortured and even brutally murdered by those who choose to use their freedom in that way.
Here again we are not considering the whole story. Just because you have the freedom to do something doesn't mean that you must do it. It is like the American flag. You CAN burn it if you want, but people don't do it because they choose not to out of love and respect for the country for which it stands. Also there are consequences of doing things that keep people from doing them. You might not be able to live with your conscience. You might be ostracized by your community. You might even be imprisoned or killed, but you will not be prevented by God because He has given you a freedom and the ability to choose what is right. You may not always do it, but that is not His fault.
You may say "Well I can understand about human-caused suffering, but what about natural disasters over which man has no control? Where can we find the answer to a question as big as that? If you read the book of Job you will find that God gives Job no explanation for the terrible things that have happened to him and God Himself says He likes Job, so what can we conclude? First, we must look at what God does tell Job after he pleads for an answer. God takes Job through a series of questions about creating this or that and asks Job what he would do. It becomes painfully clear to Job that he is talking to the God that created everything and he is so humbled that he falls down and begs God's forgiveness for questioning Him.
The point may be that we simply are not grand enough to understand God's plan. Sometimes when I am feeling excessively self-assured, I like to take a minute to imagine the scale of God. Let's see, I will live for maybe 80 years if I am lucky. All of mankind has been on the earth for maybe 10,000 years. The universe is some 12 billion years old and God was there long, long before it happened, He dreamed it up and controls its demise. Now what is it that I have done in my life that makes me think I am worthy of being noticed by God?
As Mother Theresa once said "The most miserable of lives will seem of no more consequence than one night in a cheap hotel when compared with the wonders of eternity in heaven."
Maybe each of us is given a life, and in that life there are things to deal with which may be very difficult. But suppose after that life we come into a place that fulfills our every need that makes us feel totally useful and completely loved. How long do you think that we will dwell on the life we led before we arrived? Maybe 10 years, 1,000 years, 1 million years, 10 billion years? That's O.K. Whatever it takes, we have the time. At some point even the worst life will pale in comparison to the wonder of the place we enjoy and it may be so good that it only takes a fraction of a second.
The scale of God is so great that we cannot understand His plan. He could not explain it to us because we are so tiny and it is so grand, but we can look around and realize that the one who made all the wonders that we can see deserves our trust in what we can't see.
goto top
Question- Why have I seen Christians doing all kinds of terrible things to other people. How "Christian" is that?
Answer- Not very Christian at all.
Jesus exemplified the life of a Christian and taught us to be loving, caring, and giving to all others even -- even our enemies. Any behavior that does not follow His example is not Christian. However, since our forefather, Adam, defied God, he was punished by being made to live in a world that was no longer perfect, and God withdrew his fellowship with Adam and his descendants.
God did take pity on us and rescued us by offering to pay the price for our defiance. Through His son Jesus Christ, who came to earth to absorb all the punishment for all of our deceit, we were given another chance. After we accept this gift He promises to work in us to make us more perfect if we would accept His help and follow His example. It is a process which some are just starting and others have been working on for a long time but all are moving toward Him if they have accepted His gift (Jesus) and accepted His help (Spirit).
Many claim belief, but only God knows if they are His. So all we can do is try to lift up those who fall and give each person the benefit of the doubt because it is not us who they have to prove themselves to, but God who they cannot deceive.
goto top
Question: I know the Bible condemns adultery but where does it say anything about sex between two consenting adults?
Answer: The Bible defines acceptable sexual activity as being between a man and a woman in a committed marriage relationship. It's introduced that way in Genesis 2:21-25 and always portrayed that way in the text. Hebrews 13:4 says that the marriage bed should be held in honor - not defiled. Therefore prostitution is wrong, premarital sex is wrong, adultery is wrong, as is homosexuality, bestiality, partner-swapping, etc. Sex is to be the culmination and ultimate expression of unity, intimacy and commitment between a wife and her husband. Every other kind of sexual activity robs people of the fulfillment of this expression. It's not that God is out to spoil our fun, but rather to help us find all that he intended to give us.
goto top
Question: Is this a Spirit-filled church? Has the church been touched by the current revival? Can you give an explanation for both please?
This is a difficult question because different words mean different things to different people. We believe we are spirit-filled in that we believe He is resident in each believer's life and that the leaders are eager and seeking His direction. Most people assume spirit-filled to mean speaking in tongues, healings and works of wonders. In this sense we are not. We do not see ourselves connected to what has happened in the Toronto or Florida events, if that is the "revival" that is meant.
goto top
If you would like to research this topic further there are resources through our Links page that you can use. Also feel free to ask follow up questions if you have any.
|
