In this new series, we are going to answer the most challenging questions in Christianity. We are going to discuss and give evidence (both in the Bible and outside of it) to help navigate the questions that so many believers may have during their walk in the faith.
It is so interesting to me that pretty much every single one of these questions is what I asked other Christians (pastors, teachers, and just normal churchgoers). before I was a believer, and some were answered beautifully, while some were vague or they struggled to answer at all. Since becoming Christian I have accepted truths that when I was an Atheist/Agnostic I thought I would have never accepted. I have done some IMMENSE deep dives, research, contextual-based research, and historical document analysis and have had every one of these questions answered to the fullest extent! And I am very satisfied now, in fact, more fulfilled now than when I was a fresh new Christian!
Don’t worry, this will not be a 1000-page thesis! The answers to these questions will be condensed (but if you want a more elaborate answer/explanation of something please send us an email and I will gladly write one). So let’s get started:
Atheists often ask Christians questions that challenge or explore the foundations of their beliefs. In part I, we will answer the first five questions listed below. Part II will have the remaining questions answered in a future teaching.
Part I:
- Why does God allow suffering and evil if He is all-powerful and loving?
- Is there evidence outside the Bible for the existence of God?
- Why does God remain hidden if He wants people to believe in Him?
- How can an all-loving God send people to hell?
- Why are there so many different interpretations of Christianity?
Part II:
- Can morality exist without belief in God?
- What about people who have never heard of Jesus?
- How do you reconcile science and faith, especially evolution?
- Why is faith in one particular religion the path to salvation?
- What about the contradictions or difficult passages in the Bible?
These questions often spark deeper discussions about faith, evidence, morality, and the nature of God and unfortunately, the answers could turn people away from God if not told correctly, factually, and with love.
Why does God allow suffering and evil if He is all-powerful and loving?
This was my BIGGEST question before coming to the faith! As a victim of abuse as a teenager, I thought, “Where was God when this was happening? Did He even care? Since He is omniscient, surely He saw this happening?” But this picture I found the other day explains this question so well:
God does not want suffering, murder, pain, sadness, violence, abuse, essentially: sin. He wants it all to be eradicated! And that’s exactly what is going to happen when we go to Heaven and Jesus comes back. All these painful things will no longer exist! Sin is caused by human free will. And that was the gift God gave us since the dawn of humankind. He gave us free will in the Garden of Eden, God showed us His all-powerful and loving nature by giving us a place, a home that was free of sin, but with that, He also gave us free will. The freedom to choose to do good or evil. Otherwise, then He wouldn’t be a loving God! He would be a forceful dictator! Because love that is freely given is real true love. God created us with the nature to choose to love something or not. And with that choice, we get to choose to love God or not. He will NEVER force you against your free will to love Him. Otherwise, if he never gave us the free will to choose to love Him or choose not to do evil/sin, then we would all be lifeless, unintelligent robots. And again, there’s no love or even humanity in that.
So, I would say, that because there’s suffering in this world, this PROVES that God is loving. If He had to stop/kill/destroy all suffering, He would firstly, be taking away someone’s free will and choices to do good, and secondly; there wouldn’t be many human beings left because we ALL fall short of the glory and standard of God. THEN He would no longer be a loving God if He just smited everyone to death every time someone sinned. If God stopped a person from sinning every single time, He would be taking away their free will and freedom to choose to do what they want!
So, it is not suffering that He allows, but free will, and unfortunately, some human beings choose to do evil with that free will. But God’s beautiful nature that is inside of us also shows through the free will given, in that while there is sin/suffering in the world, we can choose to do good and show God’s love to others. And I find solace in the fact that we as humans would not know what love and goodness are without pain and suffering. And in that, we can see that even in a broken world, God still shows His love, kindness, and beauty to us!
Is there evidence outside the Bible for the existence of God?
I already know I want to do a whole teaching on this, because apologetics is my favourite discussion! But, I will only do some simple historical points (because the science question is coming up soon and THAT ONE is my favourite)
- Archaeology
The amount of evidence that has been dug up from the ground and proven the Bible is true, the things God has done, these people existed and these things happened is INSURRMOUNTABLE! Many archaeologists use the Bible as a way to find historical artifacts from thousands of years ago! The Great Flood? Proven. The Ark on Mount Ararat? Discovered. 3D imaging has proven and shows the hull of the Ark, the entrances, chambers, and everything, they even found pieces of wood, and metal detected bolts in the shapes and materials used at that time. The Egyptian chariots at the bottom of the Red Sea? Found. The burnt mountain top where God sent His fire? Found (and scientists can’t prove how it was burnt in a perfect circle and stayed burnt for thousands of years while greenery grew outside of the circle). The destroyed towns of Sodom and Gomorrah? Found and been dug up to see it was BURNED DOWN with special fire and sulphur and they even found the sulphur balls that rained from Heaven and scientists cannot figure out how such perfectly round and purified balls of sulphur got there! An Egyptian manuscript carved onto a giant stone tablet stating in the EXACT carbon dated time that “The Israelites were without a king”, to the exact time in the Bible that it was written that the Israelites did not have a king.
Now people would ask, what about Jesus? Where is the proof that He existed and was who He said He was? There is lots of evidence for Yeshua! EVen people who were not Christians, have given evidence to Yeshua!
Here are a few examples - The head priest of the Jewish Temple who sentenced Jesus to death? Found, archaeologists discovered in 1990 the ossuary of Joseph Caiaphas, written in Aramaic. Pontius Pilate’s advisor, Philo (AD 41), wrote about him and also, Jesus. A Greek person graffitied into a temple wall a “joke” of Jesus dying on the cross.
Julius Africanus (AD 55) was discussing the darkness that accompanied the crucifixion of Jesus (Mt 27:45). He writes:
“On the whole world, there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun.
Josephus, a Jewish-Roman historian, included a famous reference to Jesus in his work, Antiquities of the Jews (AD 93) (His work is incredibly renowned in the Jewish community and fully believed and factual).
I could quite literally go on and on about the evidence of God existing outside the Bible, but the science proving God’s existence is the best part, so we will continue from there. But just for interest sake, I want you to just google, “archaeological discoveries and artifacts of the Bible”. You will be shocked at the overwhelming evidence found.
Why does God remain hidden if He wants people to believe in Him?
Now, you have to understand: that God is Holy, perfect, and also all for justice. With that presupposition, we understand that God cannot be in the presence of sin because He is so Holy and a just God and therefore would end sin right then and there. So firstly, He remains hidden for everyone’s protection. He is still there, but His being is too Holy for us to handle. I mean, when the world’s sin was on Jesus, His Son; God had to hide/turn away from Him. If God was hanging out with us in His full being in the presence of sin and didn’t do anything about it, then He wouldn’t be holy! And that is exactly why He sent His Son, Jesus, to be with us and God’s presence and perfection with us. And even more so why He sent The Holy Spirit, God’s spirit is inside us holding hands with our souls so that we may feel His presence.
Secondly, God is hidden because, our human form simply cannot handle the glory of God, especially His brightness. When Moses was on the Mountain talking to God, he asked God to see His face and God said no, because he literally would not be able to handle it, but God did give him a small glimpse, but Moses still had to protect his face, which shined like the sun when he went back down to the Israelites.
And thirdly, there would be no faith in God’s existence if you could see Him. Faith is the driving force of our relationship with God. Also, Yeshua, the Son of God, was on Earth and MANY people didn’t believe Him, in fact, they killed Him. So what makes it any different if God came to earth? Jesus performed all the miracles God would do and taught all the same things, but people still killed Him and didn’t believe.
There’s a funny video I watched the other day and this person said, “People keep asking, ‘Why doesn’t God just come down to earth and prove His existence?’ He did, and we killed Him”.
Finally, God shows Himself in so many ways that it is unbearable to even imagine what life would be like without, the beautiful moon and sun to give us light, the stars that shine so brightly, sunrises and sunsets that create paintings in the sky, animals that love and protect and are just so cute, miracles of people being healed, prayers being answered, worship and praise that are strong and powerful that it brings people to their knees, flowers covering millions of fields, oceans roaring and mountains bringing you to tears from its beauty and even the smallest complicated insect that was created with such precision it could not have been by accident. And you, you as a human being, bearing the image of God.
How can an all-loving God send people to Hell?
This is a similar answer to the answer to free will. But let’s determine first what is hell. There are three kinds of hell described in the Bible, (We have an in-depth teaching on this here), but to summarize - the first is where we go when we die and wait for Jesus to come back, we are sleeping here. The second is where the worst of the fallen angels and beasts are chained up to protect us. The third is where the everlasting fire exists where everything will cease to exist. Now, you need to understand this ideology that being tortured and burned forever and ever by the devil is just that. An ideology. It is not true. It was an idea created by a misinterpretation of the context of ‘everlasting fire’ and ‘eternal punishment’. Because you are right, HOW can a loving God have His children, whom He loves and died for, be tortured in pain forever? That’s just graphic! But that is just it, He doesn’t. How can the devil torture you forever if he is going to be destroyed when Jesus comes back? How can you be tortured forever if living forever is a GIFT from God? And how can you be tortured forever if believing in Jesus does not allow you to perish (cease to exist)?
Now then, what is this eternal punishment? Your free will choice to not be with God forever will last forever. When you die and you chose not to spend eternity with God, He will grant you your wish! He is not going to force you to spend eternity with Him if you didn’t even want to spend your life on earth with Him. And God is not punishing you for not choosing Him, the punishment is existing without God, because not being in the presence of goodness, love, joy, peace, and light (all the best things in this world basically), feels like a punishment. And yes, you will then cease to exist.
Now, back to the original question, How can an all-loving God send people to hell? He doesn’t, you do. If your freewill choice is to not be with God forever then He accepts your choice, even if it pains Him deeply, He will accept it. Because He is loving, He gave us free will to choose to love Him or the world. And if you love someone, you would want to spend forever with them, right? It is the same concept. Forcing someone to do something is not love. Especially when you are forcing them to be with you. That is not love, that is manipulation and that is the opposite of God.
Why are there so many different interpretations of Christianity?
Well, the answer is exactly that, because of people’s interpretations! God’s Word is sovereign and reigns forever and is truth forever. But on the grey areas where different contexts, historical documents, and even lies were made, this has altered people’s perspective of certain things, and for some things, that’s okay! If you, as a woman, want to wear a veil because it makes you feel more modest, then do so! You as a church want to do communion once a month instead of once a week, then do so, etc. But the core values, the fundamental belief is still the same, that God is the God of the universe, who sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ (Yeshua), to earth to earth to die for us and rose again on the third day that we may no longer be bound by sin and death and have everlasting life with God in Heaven, who then sent His Spirit on earth to live alongside us and guide us and become more like Jesus till He comes back again. That is the fundamental belief of all Christians, no matter the interpretations, denominations, etc. And that is what is at the core of our beliefs.
Yes, some churches and people get things wrong when reading the scripture (eg: not following God’s Laws properly, decorating Christmas trees, or not allowing people to baptize others (But only allowing 'elders' to do it), or accepting that baptizing a baby who has never sinned is good enough. But what is at the root of the Christian’s belief? That is the important bit.
That wraps up part I of this series, and we will see you in Part II with the remaining questions. Be blessed!