Doubts?

THIS SECTION IS STiLL BEING DEVELOPED. IT WILL BE GEARED TO CHRISTIANS (OR EVEN NON-CHRISTIANS WHO DESIRE TO UNDERSTAND MORE WHAT REAL CHRISTIANITY IS ABOUT)

 

Doubts and Mystery

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If we are honest, most of us Christians eventually have some doubts. And some non-Christians are attracted to the faith, but put off by some of the hard-to-swallow aspects they see. I certainly have had doubts, sometimes intellectual ones, and also ones brought on by exceedingly difficult times.

One problem is that we tend to only believe things that we can wrap our heads around. But you've heard the phrase, "can't see the forest for the trees"? God's view is the entire Universe and everything that makes up the Universe, like the laws of math and physics. God is so beyond our ability to fit into our 'boxes.'

As Christians, we do believe that we humans are made in the "image" of God, so we have the potential - to some degree - to understand things like good and evil and the power of love . Most of us also understand the occasional need for tough love for our young offspring, just as God shows with us. God could have certainly made a world where there is no sin and everyone knows and therefore worships him, but he already has that, in his angels. It seems like he wanted people who have a real choice - love is really love when there is a choice and he probably wanted us to experience that kind of love for him and others. 

 

Then there is the Bible, which is - through other human's - God's communication to us and what we need to know about our spiritual life and please him. But can you, as an infinite God describe in a book or even 1000 books that enables us to fully understand him and his thinking? And have everything relate perfectly over all of languages from the more primitive early languages through vastly larger and more nuanced languages, not to mention to be perfectly translated into all of those languages? Also, God is not limited like we are regarding time. We are limited by the march of time since the beginning of the Universe, through Biblical history, and through world history and our own personal history. It is not possible for such writings to totally convey all of his omniscient thinking to people and certainly not where the context is the same from early on to people in the 21st century. Even though the circumstances and peripheral details may not convey well to our modern complex world, the amazing thing is how timeless the message is, if we study it deeply and seek it's application (with the help of the Holy Spirit) to an understanding of everything important that he wants us to know.

Still, many things about God are going to be mysterious to our human minds. And the Bible is not going to make much sense at all to people who are not true Christians. The "proof" of God comes when you start experiencing the movement of God in the Bible and in your heart. God could have left irrefutable 100% scientific proof in his creation of the universe, earth, and human origins, but he didn't, perhaps because he wanted people to come to him not because of the irrefutable proof, through experience and heart choice. He wanted people to come to him through internal means. That's where the proof lies. 

 

Why Did God Allow Sin in the World?

One of the biggest problems we face is (as we say in the home page) that we live in a broken world and that affects everything where humans are involved. Brokenness is mostly about sin, but it also involves things that are not the result of sin, such as getting cancer, or a mate or family member dying. Judaism and thus Christianity says that in the beginning, God created a world without sin but again, with free will and sin as possible.  Scripture indicates that God allowed for pride and therefore evil, to appear at first in a top angel ('cherub') who was the tempter of his human creation. As said before, I think it is because: what does love really mean, when there is no free choice? 

God made it clear that the rain falls on the good and bad people (Matthew 5:45). Christians do not get an easier life. In some ways, it can be harder, but I have found that if we are truly putting God at the center of our lives and growing in love for him, we will have a more fulfilling and 'abundant' life, no matter what our circumstances. While the Bible clearly promotes prayer, it doesn't mean that he is there to answer every prayer request, at least in the way we expect. If God made us all have a lifelong healthier, better life, then virtually everyone would choose him out by a mental decision, not a true choice.

 

How Seriously can the Bible stories about Jesus be taken?

Many scholars claim that the Bible stories are largely made up. It used to be that many didn't even believe there was a Jesus, although most now accept that he was alive, had a group of followers and was crucified or killed. Some believe that at best it's a big made-up or highly exaggerated story by some zealous followers. But the more you study the Bible the more you realize these things: 1. There are numerous detailed Old Testament predictions (historically verified many years before he was born) about a messiah that match Jesus and many of the things in his life. Some Jewish scripture now leaves out some of the most clear prediction in Isaiah because to looks to much like the Jesus story was real. 2. Look at what happened after his life. Paul and others risked their lives and wrote letters that confirmed what he taught. The whole world was changed, including the beginning years of our calender. 3. When you study the New Testament, you will be amazed from many authors includes precise details or historical details. If people were making it up, why would they spend so much time talking about these details that are not of a particular spiritual or big-picture story? 4. Think about human nature and how incredibly hard it would be for a group of people in ancient days to tell a story where none of them broke down and admitted later it was false. Or that despite many leaders  - particularly the Romans and the Jewish leaders - who hated this new 'religion' and persecuted or tortured his followers, but nevertheless could not come up with serious facts to prove it to be a false story. The Jewish leaders were losing more and more Jewish people to this new offshoot of Judaism and they could not do much more than claim, with no proof, that he couldn't be the expected 'Messiah.'  5. Despite persecution at times, Christian faith spread  rapidly throughout the middle East, Asia, surrounding countries, and eventually to the whole world even though multiple religions were arguing a different idea of God.

Scholars say that a story is not believable if it doesn't have embarrassing contraindications, but the Bible consistently shares the failures of every single one of the key Old Testament prophets plus each of the disciples. And they did not avoid reporting seemingly embarrassing things like Jesus saying on the cross "My God why have you forsaken me?"  The more you really study - with an open mind - the gospels and the general themes of the New Testament, the more you realize how intensely his disciples believed in Jesus and that Jesus' life and teachings have to be taken very seriously.

I realize that secular scholars and scientists have come up with various seeming contradictions in scripture. In most cases, they have an assumption that you cannot even seriously consider the Biblical records as having truth, despite having exhaustively detailed stories referenced by multiple authors.  The Gospel authors are so in-sync with each other on the important stuff, it is assumed they came up with a story of some unknown party. So in essence, their job is to at the very minimum nitpick about this or that, but they cannot disprove the major themes of the Bible. How many scientists are taken seriously by other scientists or scholars if they show likely supportive evidence for a Biblical story? To avoid rejection in their profession (and keep their jobs), they have to at least find some details that they claim is not exactly what certain scripture says. 

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